On average, a person spends 374 days of their life waiting: at the train station, in traffic jams, during the pre-takeoff phase on an airplane. We wait in anonymous places — not by choice, but because we must. These are spaces without identity, liminal spaces, their only purpose is to lead us to our actual destinations. In her new exhibition at Office Impart, opening Friday (15.11.2024), Lena Marie Emrich explores these “non-places” as fragments. She gives them form and isolates them, making the invisible visible. Inspired by the poem “A Place on the Train” (2002) by Palestinian author Mahmoud Darwish, Emrich illustrates how train stations and departure halls are more than faceless portals. Darwish writes, “All the passengers return to their families. But we do not return to any home.” There is no false romanticism in his words, nor in Emrich’s work.
Both focus on themes of pain and loss. In Emrich’s pieces, this is evident in the cold functionality of folding tables, reminiscent of those found in train compartments and airplane cabins. Emrich exaggerates their casual appearance by refining the surfaces, transforming these inconspicuous objects into symbols of arrival, departure, and a state of liminality. This feeling is further conveyed in her portraits of performance artist Bianca Lee-Vasquez, who assumes the “Brace Position” (the pose that gives the work its title). The position, familiar with airline safety demonstrations, is one few have needed to adopt in real life. Yet this pose signifies more than mere protocol: it is part of a safety demonstration that most passengers overlook, viewing it as another mindless task that must be done before takeoff, even though it may be life-saving.
Text: Laura Storfner / Credit: Lena Marie Emrich
Office Impart, Waldenserstr.2–4, 10551 Berlin–Moabit; map
Lena Marie Emrich – Brace, Brace 15.11.–10.01.2025. Opening 15.11.2024 18–21h.
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