FORT
FANTASY ISLAND
Feb 8th – May 25th, 2025
Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen
Talk with the artist collective FORT and catalogue release
Friday, 09.05.2025, 6 pm
Location: Library, Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen
The artist duo FORT—Alberta Niemann (b. 1982, Bremen) and Jenny Kropp (b. 1978, Frankfurt/Main)—connects art and everyday life in striking ways. With precisely chosen artistic strategies, they evoke stories of remarkable intensity. Their current exhibition FANTASY ISLAND features large-scale sculptures, enigmatic objects, and expansive installations across more than 800 m².
In conversation with curator Ingo Clauß, FORT offers insight into their practice. What inspires them? What societal role does art play for them? What is it like to work as a duo? The talk spans from their beginnings in Bremen to national and international projects, and delves into their newest works.
The evening concludes with the presentation of the exhibition catalogue (hardcover, 80 pages, 29 euros at the museum counter).
Part of the exhibition FORT. FANTASY ISLAND
An orphaned drugstore with empty shelves. Heart-shaped balloons that glide through the exhibition. A room filled with wardrobes from which children’s songs can be heard. The exhibition FANTASY ISLAND brings together works that unsettle and captivate in equal measure. Through subtle distortions, familiar scenes and objects from everyday life take on a surreal, sometimes uncanny character.
The collective of female artists entitled FORT (Alberta Niemann, 1982 in Bremen, and Jenny Kropp, 1978 in Frankfurt/Main; both live in Berlin) connects art and life in a special way. In a pointed perspective involving various techniques, they summon up stories of impressive intensity. Their works oscillate between humorous lightness and poetical profundity
On over 800 square meters, FANTASY ISLAND presents a wide-ranging selection from the artistic production by the internationally renowned collective of female artists: From large-format sculptures and enigmatic objects to an expansive sound installation developed specifically for Bremen. All the works exude an atmosphere of melancholy, a feeling of loss and loneliness that can be shared by many persons today.
Curated by Ingo Clauß
Last Song, 2025
Specifically created for the spaces of the Weserburg, the sound installation Last Song (2025) was conceived by FORT as an exploration of age-old lullabies from various countries. Crossing cultural boundaries, this historical repertoire of songs connects to evoke a surprisingly dark and profound mood. The gentle melodies impart a sense of security, intended to lull children to sleep. Yet the texts harbor a deeper symbolism and a double-layered meaning, summoning fears, anxieties, and the darker aspects of life—even death.
Fifteen cabinets and a chest, dispersed throughout a darkened room, provide the framework for the installation. From the furniture emanate children’s voices singing lullabies in different languages—a multi-layered sound composition in which the voices appear individually, overlapping, interweaving, or at times emerging as a room-filling chorus. Loss and transience are ever-present in the songs, addressed sometimes subtly and at other times quite explicitly. One example is the German lullaby “Maykäfer flieg.” At times, the supernatural also makes its appearance, such as the witch Befana, the fearsome Papão, or the frightening figure Coco.
With Last Song, FORT evokes childhood memories while simultaneously highlighting both the differences and commonalities of diverse cultural backgrounds. Depending on their origin, the songs reflect historical contexts of loss, social hardship, or illness. The ambiguity, underlying intensity, and duality characteristic of many works by the artists leave open various individual interpretations, thereby linking personal experience with cultural reflection.
Booklet: Last Song (PDF)
Last Song (2025) was realized with the kind support of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin.
