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# What We See, What Looks Back at Us at Emergency Space, Paris
- URL: https://www.catapult-platform.art/emergency-space-paris-what-we-see-exhibition/
- Published: 2026-08-03T03:51:12.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-07T09:17:20.000Z
- Description: 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
- Author: Dominique Catherina Foertig
- Tags: Absence & Form, Exhibition, Material & Sculpture

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

[**Emergency Space**](https://www.instagram.com/emergency%5Fspace%5F/?ref=catapult-platform.art) 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** ](https://egormir.com/?ref=catapult-platform.art)under a title borrowed from Georges Didi-Huberman. 

![Emergency Space, Paris exhibition review catapult contemporary](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2026/08/what-we-see-emergency-space-paris-2026-installation-02.webp)

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

![ Emergency Space, Paris, 2026. Corridor view with a wall-mounted metal panel and a painted wood head profile in the distance](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2026/08/what-we-see-emergency-space-paris-2026-installation-03.jpg)

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.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2026/08/kohle-munch-kabinett-emergency-space-paris-2026-detail-01.webp)

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**](https://sanstitre.gallery/artists/robert-brambora?ref=catapult-platform.art)**,** **Emily Dietrich**, **Jana Köhle,** **Dominik Münch, Emilio Marroquin, Romain Sarrot** and [**Jan Van Hal** ](https://janvanhal.com/?ref=catapult-platform.art)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.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2026/08/kohle-munch-kabinett-emergency-space-paris-2026-work.webp)

****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. ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2026/08/emilio-marroquin-homeless-musically-emergency-space-paris-2026-detail-01.webp)

****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. ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2026/08/jan-van-hal-no-stud-emergency-space-paris-2026-work.webp)

****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.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2026/08/emily-dietrich-storage-solution-emergency-space-paris-2026-work.jpg)

****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.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2026/08/romain-sarrot-concerto-no3-emergency-space-paris-2026-work.webp)

****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

![Exhibition review of Robert Brambora: Memories at Emergency Space, Paris, 2026. Painted wood cutout of a head in profile showing layered translucent faces](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2026/08/robert-brambora-memories-emergency-space-paris-2026-work.webp)

****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](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2026/08/what-we-see-emergency-space-paris-2026-installation-01.webp)

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 ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2026/08/kohle-munch-kabinett-emergency-space-paris-2026-closing.webp)

****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.

---

### **stay connected, keep the art in motion**

[**Robert Brambora on Instagram**](https://www.instagram.com/robertbrambora/?ref=catapult-platform.art)  
[**Emily Dietrich on Instagram**](https://www.instagram.com/ooo%5F%5F%5F.e/?ref=catapult-platform.art)  
[**Jana Köhle on Instagram**](https://www.instagram.com/janakoehle/?ref=catapult-platform.art)  
[**Dominik Münch on Instagram**](https://www.instagram.com/d.r.munch/?ref=catapult-platform.art)  
[**Emilio Marroquin on Instagram**](https://www.instagram.com/kunstnernesrus/?ref=catapult-platform.art)  
[**Romain Sarrot on Instagram**](https://www.instagram.com/romainsarrot/?ref=catapult-platform.art)  
[**Jan Van Hal on Instagram**](https://www.instagram.com/yungvanhal/?ref=catapult-platform.art)  
[**Emergency Space on Instagram**](https://www.instagram.com/emergency%5Fspace%5F/?ref=catapult-platform.art)  
[**Curator Egor Miroshnichenko on Instagram**](https://www.instagram.com/mir.egor/?ref=catapult-platform.art)

**About Catapult Contemporary - Art Platform Submission**

This is a exhibition review published by Catapult — an independent editorial platform for contemporary art, based in Vienna. We publish exhibition reviews, artist features, interviews, and critical context, with a focus on emerging and mid-career practices from Europe and beyond.  
[catapult.art](https://www.catapult-platform.art/) 

Want to be featured? [Submit your work →](https://www.catapult-platform.art/submit/)

---

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