Julien Bismuth’s practice, which spans installation, collation and performance, is concerned with language, both colloquial and formal, and the gestures, expressions, signs and symbols that make it unique. Bismuth’s work examines how images are loaded with language, and vice versa, and how one forms the other in a cyclical dance between an object, its physical manifestation, and its disembodied conception. In 2015’s Steganograms, Bismuth created images encrypted with text, made with digital steganography and software formulated by his cousin. As the data of the original image is altered and increased – such as changing the colour of the pixels, or transcoding text into the image that changes in colour – the level of encryption becomes more visible. This work demonstrates the way that text, rather than supplementing in image and explaining its concept, can physically alter its perception and distort one’s understanding.

Written by Goldsmiths CCA

New York City

Manifesta

Paris

The Armory Show

Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois

Vienna

Kunstraum Am Schauplatz

Mendes Wood Dm

Galerie Emanuel Layr

Brooklyn

Carriage Trade Gallery

Los Angeles

The Box

Simone Subal Gallery

Sammlung Lenikus

Renwick Gallery

Frankfurt am Main

Parisa Kind Gallery

Peter Blum Gallery

Otero/Plassart Gallery

David Zwirner

Antwerpen

Office Baroque

Layr Wuestenhagen

Invisible Exports

Foxy Production

Berlin

Barbara Wien

Lisbon

Maat

Bussy-Saint-Martin

Chateau De Rentilly

National Art Gallery

Frac Île-de-France Le Plateau

Emily Harvey Foundation

Belvedere Palace

Villeurbanne

Institut d’art contemporain Villeurbanne / Rhône-Alpes

Besançon

Frac Franche-Comté

Florence

Museo Marino Marini

Genève

Theatre De Lusine

Noisiel

La Ferme Du Buisson

Palais De Tokyo

Montreuil

Maison Populair

Jeu De Paume

Les Arques

Les Ateliers Des Arques

Kunsthalle Wien

León de Los Aldama

Musac - Museo De Arte Contemporáneo De Castilla

Philadelphia

Ica Philadelphia

Fondation d'entreprise Pernod Ricard

Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt

Austrian Cultural Forum

Nice

Villa Arson

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (Lace)

Porto

Serralves Museum

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Mexico City

Museo Jumex

Toulouse

les Abattoirs, Musée – Frac Occitanie Toulouse

Rome

Nomas Foundation

Rennes

La Criée centre d'art contemporain

Crac Alsace - Centre Rhénan D’Art Contemporain

London

Bloomberg SPACE

Julien Bismuth

Pulcinella Study (Evil are the masks that do not weigh)