Off–Balance
Reto Emch
In his work Off–Balance, Swiss artist Reto Emch stages standard construction waste skips as precariously inclined sculptural forms.
Silver paint slowly trickles over the edges of the tilted containers, leaving abstract traces on the ground – a controlled, yet poetically open gesture, evocative of action painting. The skips themselves – industrially manufactured, heavy and functional – become vessels for a delicate balance between control and chance, materiality and meaning, monumentality and fragility.
Moving these heavy sculptures from Solothurn to Vienna by rail is far more than a logistical necessity – it is an integral part of the installation. Emch sees the journey as a performative movement that amplifies the scope of the work and draws attention to the ecological implications of the art world. Between global mobility and ecological responsibility, a field of tension emerges that affects many artists – Off–Balance visualises this dilemma.
The chosen colour, silver, intensifies the industrial feel of the piece, reflecting light, surface, value. At the same time, like the unstable position of the skips, it unsettles our perception, prompting us to reflect: What does it mean when something is off balance? In the urban context of the MQ forecourt, Off–Balance is an intervention in public space, a site for poetic displacement that allows social, ecological and artistic concerns to flow and merge.
Curated by Verena Kaspar-Eisert.
An exhibition in collaboration with FUTURAMA°LAB.
Supported by: SOkultur Swisslos Fund of the Canton of Solothurn, Däster-Schild Foundation, Studer & Staub Metallbau, Neuenschwander AG, Swiss Embassy in Austria.
MQ Forecourt
