Where was What We See, What Looks Back at Us on view?

What We See, What Looks Back at Us was on view at Emergency Space in Paris, France.

When did What We See, What Looks Back at Us run?

The exhibition ran from July 4 to July 30, 2026.

Who curated What We See, What Looks Back at Us?

What We See, What Looks Back at Us was curated by Egor Miroshnichenko.

Aug 03, 2026 Absence & Form

What We See, What Looks Back at Us at Emergency Space, Paris

Q: Which artists were featured in What We See, What Looks Back at Us?

The exhibition featured Robert Brambora, Emily Dietrich, Jana Köhle, Dominik Münch, Emilio Marroquin, Romain Sarrot, and Jan Van Hal.

Read our review of the group show What We See, What Looks Back at Us at Emergency Space, Paris, on the mutual gaze between object and viewer. Curated by Egor Miroshnichenko

Installation view. Exhibition review of What We See, What Looks Back at Us at Emergency Space, Paris, 2026. Artwork: Jana Köhle & Dominik Münch, Kabinett, 2026, Closet, Animatronic, 140 × 60 × 160 cm Photo: Misha Gudwin

Emergency Space Presents What We See, What Looks Back at Us, in Paris

Emergency Space presented What We See, What Looks Back at Us in Paris, on view through July 30, 2026, curated by Egor Miroshnichenko.

What We See, What Looks Back at Us

Artists:
Robert Brambora, Emily Dietrich, Jana Köhle, Dominik Münch, Emilio Marroquin, Romain Sarrot, Jan Van Hal

Exhibition:
What We See, What Looks Back at Us

Venue:
Emergency Space

City:
Paris, France

Dates:
July 4, 2026 – July 30, 2026

Curator:
Egor Miroshnichenko

Photography:
Misha Gudwin

Image Courtesy:
Courtesy the artists and Emergency Space, Paris

Seven artists shared the space at Emergency Space in Paris this July, brought together by curator Egor Miroshnichenko under a title borrowed from Georges Didi-Huberman.

Emergency Space, Paris exhibition review catapult contemporary — Installation view. Exhibition review of What We See, What Looks Back at Us at **Emergency Space, Paris,** 2026. Plywood cabinet beside two dark engraved glass panels on a white wall. Photo: Misha Gudwin

Installation view. Exhibition review of What We See, What Looks Back at Us at Emergency Space, Paris, 2026. Corridor view with a wall-mounted metal panel and a painted wood head profile in the distance. Photo: Misha Gudwin

Exhibition review of Jana Köhle and Dominik Münch: Kabinett at Emergency Space, Paris, 2026. Close-up of the grey animatronic mechanism with two eyes emerging from a round opening. — Jana Köhle & Dominik Münch, Kabinett, 2026, Closet, Animatronic, 140 × 60 × 160 cm. Photo: Misha Gudwin

What We See, What Looks Back at Us ran from July 4 to 30, 2026, gathering works by Robert Brambora, Emily Dietrich, Jana Köhle, Dominik Münch, Emilio Marroquin, Romain Sarrot and Jan Van Hal around a single question: who is actually doing the looking.

Below, in the curator's own words, the case for an object that watches back:

An exhibition usually assumes a simple contract: the visitor looks, the object submits to being seen. The gaze passively travels from point A to point B, recognizes familiar contours, draws its conclusions. But in fact any gaze mirrors the viewer.

The works gathered here operate in this register. They are more interested in watching the visitors than in how they appear to them. The objects return the gaze, delay it, and distort it. Photo: Misha Gudwin

Jana Köhle & Dominik Münch, Kabinett, 2026, Closet, Animatronic Exhibition review of Jana Köhle and Dominik Münch: Kabinett at Emergency Space, Paris, 2026 Open plywood closet with a small grey animatronic eye mechanism inside. — **Jana Köhle & Dominik Münch,** Kabinett, 2026, Closet, Animatronic, 140 × 60 × 160 cm. **Emergency Space, Paris**, 2026. Photo: Misha Gudwin

Exhibition review of Emilio Marroquin: Homeless Musically at Emergency Space, Paris, 2026. Charcoal drawing of coiled springs hung backward in its frame on a white wall.Charcoal drawing of coiled springs hung backward in its frame on a white wall. — **Emilio Marroquin,** Homeless Musically, 2025–2026, Charcoal on paper in backward frame, 125 × 75 cm. **Emergency Space, Paris**, 2026. Photo: Misha Gudwin

Exhibition review of Jan Van Hal: no stud at Emergency Space, Paris, 2026. Two stacked acrylic panels painted as dark receding box interiors Two stacked acrylic panels painted as dark receding box interiors. — **Jan van Hal,** no stud, 2026, Acrylic on canvas over panel, 173 × 110 × 8 cm. Emergency Space, Paris, 2026. Photo: Misha Gudwin

Exhibition review of Emily Dietrich: Self portrait of the artist or a storage solution for Emergency Space at Emergency Space, Paris, 2026. Wall-mounted lacquered MDF rack holding rolled paper and tubes. — **Emily Dietrich,** Self portrait of the artist or a storage solution for Emergency Space, 2026, Lacquer on MDF, various materials, 165 × 50 × 22.5 cm, various dimensions. **Emergency Space, Paris,** 2026. . Photo: Misha Gudwin

Exhibition review of Romain Sarrot: Concerto N°3 ascese alla luna 1/2 at Emergency Space, Paris, 2026. Black glossy Altuglass panel on an aluminum tube stand resembling a screen. — **Romain Sarrot,** Concerto N°3 ascese alla luna 1/2, 2025, laser engraving on glossy black opaque Altuglass, aluminum, wood, glue, rectangular aluminum tubes, corner brackets, plastic end cap, 120 × 100 × 70 cm, unique. **Emergency Space, Paris**, 2026. . Photo: Misha Gudwin

Robert Brambora, Memories, 2023, oil, acrylic and pastel on wood, 68 × 56 × 2.2 cm. Emergency Space, Paris, 2026. Photo: Misha Gudwin

The title refers to Georges Didi-Huberman's «Ce que nous voyons, ce qui nous regarde» (1992; What We See, What Looks Back at Us), one of the first books to problematize this relation.

Didi-Huberman writes against "What you see is what you see," the credo of Minimalism that reduces the object to pure visibility, and proposes the opposite optic: precisely the mute, self-evident object is the one that opens up, holds the gaze, and returns it.

In this gaze the viewer finds their own reflection: the height of their body, its temperature, its position in space. The object is scaled to the viewer, faces them at their volume and measures them as much as they measure it.

Egor Miroshnichenko, curator

By the time the show closed on July 30, the installation photographs made the curator's argument without any further text. Jana Köhle and Dominik Münch's animatronic closet, Kabinett, sits in the room like something interrupted mid-thought, its doors caught between opening and watching.

What We See, What Looks Back at Us at Emergency Space, Paris, 2026. Wide gallery view with a plywood cabinet, a graphite spring drawing and a wall-mounted paper rack. Photo: Misha Gudwin — Installation view. Exhibition review of What We See, What Looks Back at Us at Emergency Space, Paris, 2026. Photo: Misha Gudwin

Exhibition review of Jana Köhle and Dominik Münch: Kabinett at Emergency Space, Paris, 2026. Close-up of a wood grain cabinet door with a key ring hanging from a small round opening. catapult contemporary — **Jana Köhle & Dominik Münch**, Kabinett, 2026, Closet, Animatronic, 140 × 60 × 160 cm. Emergency Space, Paris, 2026. Photo: Misha Gudwin

Emilio Marroquin hung his charcoal drawing backward in its frame, forcing the support itself into the position of the subject rather than the image. Nothing here asks to be admired from a fixed distance.

It asks to be met at eye level, and for three weeks at Emergency Space, that meeting apparently happened nightly.

Support and follow on Instagram:

Robert Brambora on Instagram
Emily Dietrich on Instagram
Jana Köhle on Instagram
Dominik Münch on Instagram
Emilio Marroquin on Instagram
Romain Sarrot on Instagram
Jan Van Hal on Instagram
Emergency Space on Instagram
Curator Egor Miroshnichenko on Instagram

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