” … and where is Fanny ? ” – An exhibition about Fanny Hensel

Mendelssohn House Leipzig

Three years after the new exhibition on the life and work of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was completed, the Mendelssohn House is expanding its exhibition rooms by another floor. A new exhibition is dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn’s sister Fanny Hensel and her artistic universe.
The hidden bond between the siblings manifests itself through more than 7,000 letters, which serve as the source for the exhibition’s narrative structure. Fanny tells her story in her own words.
The exhibition concept was developed in conceptual sessions with Jürgen Ernst, former director of the Mendelssohn House Foundation, Claudia Thierbach, director of the museum, Aurelia Bertron and Ulrich Schwarz.
The poetry of Fanny Hensel’s musical oeuvre finds its spatial correspondence through the design of its own, almost somewhat enraptured, bright and friendly sphere – Fanny’s universe. The music cycle “The Year” is a spatial structuring element and inspires both the sequence and the interior, animating the rooms with music for the seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Client: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Foundation, represented by the executive board and director of the Mendelssohn House, Jürgen Ernst.

Curators: Cornelia Thierbach and Juliane Baumgart-Streibert

Design and artistic direction: Bertron Schwarz Frey, Aurelia Bertron and Ulrich Schwarz

Exhibition planning and site management: Molitor GmbH, project supervision Marco Unterhaslberger

Realization Graphic Design: Katharina Weber

Animation of the »Sunday music« and Fanny’s trip to Italy: buchstabenschubser