Sculptures designed with shimmering sequins and “paintings” created from colored cotton wool fill the extra high exhibition hall on the 10th floor of the Munch Museum. Artist and fashion designer Admir Batlak shows his projects here, as part of the “Solo Oslo” exhibition series. Batlak originally comes from Bosnia-Herzegovina and is a trained fashion designer. He has made a name for himself in the Norwegian fashion industry with a unique and interesting expression. In recent years, he has gradually moved more to work with textile sculptures and installations. AT MUNCH: Admir Batlak in Edvard Munch’s winter studio at Ekely in Oslo. Batlak (b. 1982 in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina) lives and works in Oslo. He is a trained clothing designer from the Istituto Marangoni in Milan (2006), and is represented in the collections of the National Museum, Kode 1, Bergen, Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Trondheim and Stavanger Art Museum. Photo: The Munch Museum Sequin sculptures At Munch, Batlak has now created several large textile compositions. The most eye-catching consists of sequined textiles in various colors that hang on the wall. Here he works well with the design of the individual elements. The textile sculptures contain a rich spectrum of references to both clothes and draperies, but also to nature: One sculpture may resemble an old tree root, another sparkles like rock crystal, and a third gives associations to shimmering fish scales or mother of pearl. STRONGER ALONE: news’s critic believes that Batlak’s creations stand more strongly on their own as individual elements than they do as a unified unit in the exhibition. Photo: The Munch Museum The fabrics are strung up in hard, cold steel lattice frames. The shimmering sequins balance on a fine line between something exclusive and something vulgar. I have a great feeling for each of these textile sculptures, but as an installation I don’t think it works. Neither in terms of color nor shape, he makes the elements “play” together in a musical whole. Chaotic and undynamic There are some fairly small, simple moves he could have made to create greater tension in the expression. Instead of leaving all the fabrics equally sparkling and flashing, he could, for example, have matched the sequined textiles against some duller and rougher textiles. Nor does he make use of the form-related possibilities at his disposal: the sequined sculptures in gold, brown-black and silver-grey form a diagonal on the wall towards one of the hall’s corners. This movement is broken roughly in the middle by the hint of a counter-diagonal in blue-green and black. “IN THE CRACK”: I think every single textile sculpture is great; here there is obviously a competence present, but he still has not managed to land the project as a whole. Photo: The Munch Museum He could have created much more tension by placing the counter movement slightly above or below the centre. There is also little variation in the size of the various textiles. Although a certain tension arises between the fabrics and the hard, industrial grid frames, he does not vary the size or shape of these either. The organization of the individual parts also seems a bit unconscious and random. In this way, the whole appears both chaotic and rather undynamic, and he is unable to activate the elements in any visual harmony. A painting easel made of cotton wool and steel Another strange but fascinating installation is a sort of painting easel. Here he has created beautiful, painterly compositions in colored wadding within rectangular steel lattice frames. Both above and below, the shape is finished with a triangle, so that the column looks like an arrow pointing both up towards the ceiling and down towards the floor. A CHOICE MADE: The fact that the top and bottom of this ‘painting’ colossus in cotton wool are triangular in shape binds the shape in an unfortunate way. Why hasn’t he detached these beautiful paintings and hung them over the wall? Perhaps he was afraid that it would become too traditional, but I think that it is innovative enough to create “paintings” in colored water en masse. Photo: The Munch Museum From a distance, the rectangular fields really look like paintings. They are alive and varied within each frame. They appear as shimmering, transparent veils of pale hues, which make me think of how light can be filtered sparingly through the foliage deep in the forest. It is impressive how he manages to evoke such effects from a material such as cotton wool. But this time it doesn’t work very well as a complete installation either. I don’t understand why he absolutely wanted to “stack” these images on top of each other in this way. I would have liked to have seen them separately with sufficient air around them. The way they are forced together in a colossus now, the two expressions beat each other to death a little. IN THE DETAILS: Admir Batlak is obviously competent in his dealings with textiles. Photo: The Munch Museum Inside the sculptures, he consciously works with modulation and creates exciting relief effects. Photo: The Munch Museum A sorrow for something that is over The exhibition’s strongest work is a white sculpture made of pale plastic sequins, which lies on the floor. I can’t decide if I think it looks like a throwaway, fashionable party garment – or if it reminds me more of a strange mythological creature, some kind of cross between an angel and a swan. SOMETHING THAT HAS BEEN: I like Batlak’s white floor sculpture, it sets in motion a wealth of associations both related to clothes and more dreamlike notions. Batlak also has specially designed garments for the museum hosts so that they, with their sequined blouses, blend in with the installation. Photo: The Munch Museum The sculpture fills me with melancholy for some reason. Perhaps it is about the experience of something that is irretrievably past. A time for dancing or believing in angels or god knows what. The exhibition has many fine individual expressions. There is no doubt whatsoever that Admir Batlak has an eye for colors and a great deal of expertise in textiles. But as an installation artist, he still has a way to go. news reviews Title: “I knekken”, third edition of the exhibition series “Solo Oslo” Artist: Admir Batlak Curator: Tominga O’Donnell Location: Munchmuseet Time: until 4 February 2024 Estimated time: 20-45 minutes
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“I knekken” by Admir Batlak, third edition of “Solo Oslo” at the Munch Museum – Reviews and recommendations
