“[…] Von Bismarck appears behind the wheel of a car that is speeding around its own axis in a state of propelled standstill in Polo (2012). Without a magnetic point of attraction, like the tree encountered by another VW, the white vehicle is apparently caught in an endless loop, a Volkswagen, the German “people’s car” persisting in a state of solipsism, intent on going nowhere in the dark until it runs out of gas.”

Text: Laura Schleussner, Egomotion, in ‘Julius von Bismarck – Animals are dumb and plants are even dumber’, p. 24-25

In Polo (2021) a refitted VW Polo, and later a VW Golf, rotates around its own axis. The performance is of endless duration. The car goes in circles and thus ceases to function as a vehicle of transport: what was once a utility object has lost its motile purpose, instead persisting in a state of accelerated standstill, seemingly following a will of its own.