In *I left the window open for you* at Kunsthalle Osnabrück, set in the cloister of a former monastery, the corridor no longer appears as a mere passage, but as a space that disrupts orientation. Emrich has developed a new ensemble of kinetic sculptures and altered spatial conditions.
Inscribed in bronze-coloured light, *Traversing Poem* (2026) moves across twelve window bays, its shadows travelling over the tiled floor and shifting throughout the day. Mirrored mobiles approach balance not as a state, but as a continuous process of adjustment.
As the corridor opens into the side wings, *Rowing laughter crawling down the spine (Rückgrat), 2026* appears in two gently moving mobiles that reflect their surroundings. One consists of laughing mouths in mirror and faux marble. The work draws on Nuar Alsadir’s *Animal Joy*. Laughter appears not as a light gesture or humorous surface, but as a bodily impulse that slips beyond control, resisting a culture in which presence is increasingly mediated, numbed and held at a distance.
The second mobile takes the form of a curved spine rendered entirely in mirror. Light breaks across its surface and is thrown back into the corridor and across passing bodies. Its title plays on the German *Rückgrat*, composed of *Rücken* (“back”) and *Grat* (“ridge” or “projecting line”). The spine becomes a line that holds and carries the body. Here, that line is curved and set in motion: less a functioning system than a sensitive structure.
In *Reversed View (Ausstrahlung, Out-Shining), 2026*, a window grille normally positioned on the exterior of a building is relocated inside. Removed from its original function, the grille makes protection visible as both barrier and threshold. At its centre, a marble-like inlay shows a woman turning slightly towards the viewer, her skin and ribs appearing to peel away. A bronze mirror occupies the opening in the body, returning the viewer’s own reflection.
After all, the mirror gets the last look.