FORT consists of Alberta Niemann (*1982 in Bremen) and Jenny Kropp (*1978 in Frankfurt am Main). Since 2008, they have been creating installations, performances, and video installations (until 2013 with Anna Jandt). As of 2023/2024, FORT has held the professorship for sculpture (sculpture/installation/spatial conception) in the Fine Arts program at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts in Kiel.
The group of artists FORT, made up of Alberta Niemann (1982 in Bremen) and Jenny Kropp (1978 in Frankfurt am Main), moves like a seismograph through our contemporary everyday world, tracing current social, political, and economic events and developments. A key part in their artistic practice is played by the assimilation, transformation and staging of different situations that they either find or create for themselves. On occasion their detailed arrangements – which are often produced in connection with performative interventions – resemble stages or experimental set-ups.
They start out from these to examine and disclose mechanisms of consumer society and the art mar-ket, the conditions of current art production, or the prevailing ideas about a place. It is frequently possible to discern borrowed forms or content from film, literature and music, which are subtly interwoven in the group’s works. In their inter-ventions, performances and installations, on the one hand FORT respond to existing structures and conditions; at the same time, the artists add alien aspects to their found situations and play with our perception and a re-contextualising of the apparently familiar. (Lotte Dinse)
Selected institutional exhibitions and prizes: MGK Siegen (solo, 2023), Kunstverein Ruhr (solo, 2020), Kunsthalle Gießen (solo, 2019), Kunstverein in Hamburg (solo, 2019), Kunstverein in Hamburg (2019), Langen Foundation (2017), Cremer Prize (2016), kestnergesellschaft (solo, 2015), New Positions Award with Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman at Art Cologne (2014), Karl H. Ditze Preis (2013), Neues Museum Weserburg (2009), KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin (2008).
SOLO EXHIBITIONS (Selection)
2025 Fantasy Island, Museum für moderne Kunst Weserburg, GER
2024 At Night We Stay Awake Defending The Form, Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck, AT
2023 Archiv der Sorgen, MGKSiegen, Siegen, GER
The Great Await, Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf, GER
2021 Egale Lage, AkA – Atelier für kulturelle Angelegenheiten, Weske-Borken, GER
2020 INNER CIRCLE, Kunstverein Ruhr, Essen, GER
2019 Undercover, Kunsthalle Gießen, Gießen, GER
2018 Sweet Sickness, Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf, GER
Night Shift, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg, GER
2017 Limbo, Langen Foundation, Neuss, GER
Night Shift, Casino – Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg, LUX
2016 The School of Art, Science and Technical Classes, MOSTYN, Wales, Wales, UK
Retired, LWL. Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Münster, GER
2015 About Blank, Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf, GER
The Daily Sun, artothek, Cologne, GER
FORT – shift, kestnergesellschaft, Hannover, GER (cat.)
2014 The Shining, Art Cologne New Positions with Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Cologne, GER
Dream Of Capri – CAPRI, Düsseldorf, GER
2013 One in a Million, Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Vienna, AT
Morgen Letzter Tag, Kunsthaus Dresden, GER
2012 Leck, Galerie Crone, Berlin, GER
Lou, Exile, Berlin, GER
2011 The Eye Balled Walls, LISTE 16, Basel mit Gallery Exile, Berlin, GER
2010 Fort Hatchery Works, Fernheizwerk Neukölln, Berlin, GER
The Golden Rule, Galerie Lena Brüning, Berlin, GER
2009 Point Gray, Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen, GER
Horror Vacui, Galerie Crystal Ball, Berlin, GER
2008 Point Gray, Sequences Real Time Art Festival, Reykjavik, ISL
Hotel Marienbad, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, GER
GROUP EXHIBITION (Selection)
2024 20 Jahre Langen Foundation: Drei Generationen – Eine Leidenschaft, Langen Foundation, Neuss, GER
2023 Zwei. Zur Aktualität des Duos, Städtische Galerie, Villingen-Schwenningen, GER
Die Stadt ist anderswo. Revision eines Traums, Situation Kunst (für Max Imdahl), Museum unter Tage, Bochum, GER
Gegenwartsgesellschaft – 50 Jahre / 50 years Produzentengalerie Hamburg, Produzentengalerie, Hamburg, GER
2022 Die Vögel des Zufalls, Galerie Norbert Arns, Cologne, GER
So wie wir sind 4.0, Weserburg, Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen, GER
On Equal Terms, Open Studios, Uferhallen e.V., Berlin, GER
2021 Ever Seen Never Seen, FAHRENHEIT, Berlin, GER
AUSZEIT VON PAUSEN UND MOMENTEN DES AUFBRUCHS, Kunstmuseum Ravensburg, Ravensburg, GER
So wie wir sind 3.0, Weserburg, Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen, GER
Taking my Thoughts for a Walk, Kunstverein Dortmund, Dortmund, GER
Macht! Licht!, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, GER
2020 Invitation to Love | curated by FORT, Kunstverein Bremerhaven, Bremerhaven, GER
1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1 Art.8 GG Versammlungsfreiheit, Villa Schöningen, Potsdam, GER
Garten der Gegenwart, salondergegenwart, Hamburg, GER
Lichtparcours, Braunschweig, GER
So wie wir sind 2.0, Weserburg | Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen, GER
2019 Zwei, Produzentengalerie, Hamburg, GER
Zone dangereuse, Zidoun & Bossuyt, Luxembourg, LUX
Im Licht der Nacht – Vom Leben im Halbdunkel, Marta Herford, Herford, GER
Im Licht der Nacht – Die Stadt schläft nie, Kai 10 | Arthena Foundation, Düsseldorf, GER
Beyond, me, Collectors Room, Berlin, GER
So wie wir sind 1.0, Weserburg, Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen, GER
Act, Q18, Cologne, GER
2018 Rinnzekete bee bee nnz krr müü, Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden, GER
Mass X (The Unfolding), Supportico Lopez, Berlin, GER
Gruppenbild, Kulturkirche St. Stephani, Bremen, GER
I Am Large, I Contain Multitudes, Galerie Wedding – Raum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin, GER
2017 I’m not here to make friends, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, GER
Rumors of Glory, Basis, Frankfurt, GER
You Are Here, West, Den Haag, GER
2016 Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Stipendium. Die Ausstellung 2016, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, GER
This Is Your Replacement, Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf, GER
2015 Letztes Jahr in Marienbad. Ein Film als Kunstwerk, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, GER
RETRO STORE, curated by_Veit Loers, Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Vienna, AT
drawing now, Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Vienna, AT
AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIPS
2022/23 Artist in Residence Siegen, University of Siegen with the Museum of Contemporary Art Siegen, GER
2016/17 New York Studio Scholarship from the Hessian Cultural Foundation, GER
2016 Cremer Prize, GER
2014 New Positions Award, with Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman at Art Cologne, GER
Kunstfonds Foundation Work Scholarship, GER
2013 Karl H. Ditze Young Talent Promotion, GER
2012 Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Scholarship, GER
2008 Stiftung Kunstfonds Projektförderung, GER
Shortlist blauorange, GER
FANTASY ISLAND
• Weserburg. Museum für moderne Kunst, GER