FORT is a female artist duo founded in 2008 consisting of Alberta Niemann (*1982 in Bremen) and Jenny Kropp (*1978 in Frankfurt/Main). Their work includes sculpture, installation, performance, video and photography. Their work has been shown at Kunstverein Hamburg, Kestnergesellschaft Hannover, KW Institute of Contemporary Art Berlin, and MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei, among others. FORT has been awarded numerous prizes and grants, including the Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Scholarship and the Cremer Prize of the LWL Museum für Kunst und Kultur. The artists live and work in Berlin.

Further informationen: sieshoeke.com/de/artists/fort

Statement of the expert jury on the female artists duo FORT:

‘The jury is very impressed by the quality and diversity of the submitted concepts for the first year of the artists program of the University of Siegen in cooperation with the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen. The jury was convinced by the artistic project and œvre of the artists duo FORT, consisting of Alberta Niemann (*1982 in Bremen) and Jenny Kropp (*1978 in the City of Frankfurt).

In mostly site-specific installations, videos and performances FORT deals with things and themes of everyday life. Architectural elements and objects of urban space serve as the means of their subtle and humorous interventions, which make the seemingly familiar suddenly appear different. As part of the ‘Artist in Residence Siegen’ program, FORT aim at addressing the concerns of the people of Siegen over the course of a year. With advertisements in various media and a location created especially for the project, they will get in touch with the public both personally and through the media. FORT focuses on personal fears and concerns about local changes as well as the global crises of our present. In direct exchange with the urban society, in cooperation with researchers and students of the University of Siegen, they develop an artistic archive of worries. It will serve as the basis for a work of art in public space that directly reflects the process and the time of its creation. With the planned project FORT link the public, social and media spaces of Siegen and thereby also involve the citizens in an ideal way.’

Siegen, March 2022

Members of the international external Advisory Board for the academic year 2022/23 in alphabetical order:

Ellen Blumenstein
Curator of HafenCity and the model project Imagine the City, Hamburg

Prof. Dr. Joseph Imorde
Professor of Theory and History, Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin

Prof. Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung
Founder and Artistic Director of SAVVY Contemporary, from 2023 Director of Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin

Britta Peters
Artistic Director of Urbane Künste Ruhr, Bochum

Dr. Eva Schmidt
Curator and Author, Director of the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen (retired)

Joanna Warsza
Curator of Fine Arts in Public Space, Senior Lecturer at the CuratorLab at the Konstfack, Stockholm

Axel Wieder
Director Bergen Kunsthall, Norwegen

Members of the expert jury for the academic year 2022/23 in alphabetical order:

Jennifer Cierlitza
Managing director and Curator, Kunstverein Siegen e.V.

Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Eva von Engelberg
Professor of Architectural History, University of Siegen

Dr. Karin Kolb
Director of the Siegerlandmuseum am Oberen Schloss, Siegen

Prof. Johanna Schwarz
Professor for Cultural Education and Artistic Strategies in Public Space, University of Siegen

Arne Schmitt
Artist, Cologne/Zurich

Thomas Thiel
Director of the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen