Die Luft muss man sich wegdenken (One Must Think Away the Air) (2017) is an installation of bent wire, sculpturally manifesting the wind-whipped sea off the Irish coast during Hurricane Ophelia. An enthralling structure in space, the work seems heavy and floating, restless and balanced at the same time. The seemingly unstable steel wires that are irregularly positioned against one another give rise to nervous vibrations in the space. Through a reduced language of forms, it is no longer a real space but rather a conceptual one.


The basis for the floating wire works is data collected by means of photogrammetry on the coast of Ireland during Hurricane Ophelia (2017), a wave that was scanned from the steep coast downward. In an interview, von Bismarck describes his experience with a small boat in rough seas during a trip in the South of France. He was at the mercy of the waves and felt the power of the force of nature very directly—a physical reality that he describes as beautiful and terrifying at the same time. With the installation Die Luft muss man sich wegdenken, he brought the ocean into the exhibition space and created a contemporary landscape picture.


The installation was part of Julius von Bismarck’s solo exhibition ’Gewaltenteilung’ at the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg in 2017.