Reto Emch
Off–Balance 

Installation in front of the MuseumsQuartier Wien
Thu 26.06. – Sun 12.10.2025

Opening Wed 25.06., 18h 

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.

Curator: Verena Kaspar-Eisert

In cooperation with FUTURAMA°LAB

Supporters: SOkultur Swisslos-Fonds (Canton of Solothurn), Däster-Schild Stiftung, Studer & Staub Metallbau, Neuenschwander AG, Embassy of Switzerland in Austria

visualization © Reto Emch

Biography

Born in Solothurn (Switzerland) in 1961, Reto Emch works in the fields of installation, sculpture, painting, photography and percent-for-art. He has exhibited major interventions and spatial installations at venues including project space kenakian in Saga, Japan (2024), the Shchusev State Museum of Architecture in Moscow (2018), the museum ship CAP SAN DIEGO in Hamburg (2009), Palazzo della Borsa in Genoa (2008) and Fondazione Merz in Turin (2008).

Reto Emch has already undertaken a major work in Vienna, in 1996. As part of the exhibition Die Donau. 1000 Jahre Österreich – Eine Reise, organised by the Wien Museum, he installed the Schottenbrunnen, a fountain featuring swirling leather jackets, in the courtyard of the Schottenstift.

Further interventions and installations in public spaces:

2021    ARPEGGIO, Attisholz-Areal, Solothurn, Switzerland
2017    L’Energie, Beckmann’s Room, Bex & Arts, Bex, Switzerland
2011    Territoires, La Tour de Duin, Bex & Arts, Bex, Switzerland
1989    Das Tränenmeer, Salpêtrière, Paris, France