Visual arts | “It’s a bit ironic” – Valuable Finnish art is now being looted in Fortnite, but one board was too many for the American game company

One the game is known in most families with children around the world. Fortnite there is Minecraft and Roblox and a few of the most popular gaming environments on the planet. In total, there will be approximately 650 million registered players in 2024.

The idea behind the basic version of the game is simple. One hundred players jump to the island and the last one alive wins.

In addition to the battlefield Fortnite is also a popular venue. And an advertising spot. For example, Käärijä has In Fortnite own ChaChaChaLand, where you can shoot in the virtual Senate Square to the rhythm of the artist’s music. The players themselves have also created different environments for their favorite game.

Thursday The National Gallery, which runs Finland’s leading museums, made a kind of history when it was the first museum in the world to create its own gaming environment To Fortnite. In the new Art Heist -in the game environment, the players’ task is to capture classic works and keep them for themselves despite the robbery attempts of other players.

This is how you can rob art from the collections of the National Gallery in the game. At the same time, you have to try to fight off the opponent’s robbery attempts.

Art Heist in terms of success, the first lessons are meaningful. During them, you should get enough players to get on the lists that guarantee visibility. After the first twelve hours, the situation looked promising.

“We are quite satisfied. It has appeared on several lists there, which is a really great sign. There are always at least a couple of games going on. They can accommodate twelve players at a time,” Kansallisgalleria’s digital content producer Anna Laamanen says.

The project during this time, museum visitors were able to get to know the current game world in a new way. Fortniteproject was made in cooperation with several partners, and a number of players actively participated in testing the game map.

They also became clear Fortnite the limits set by the publisher Epic Games on the content. The game’s twelve-year age limit in the United States excluded nudity, for example, which caused a headache when choosing sculptures.

“It was surprisingly difficult to find old copyright-free sculptures in our collection that don’t feature naked women,” Laamanen smiles.

One proposed painting had to be completely abandoned. Dutch by Edwaert Collier Vanitas-the skull he painted for the work did not pass the screen of Epic Games.

“It’s a bit ironic that the skull is banned, because the game involves shooting,” says Laamanen.

In the end, both problems were solved. Some of the foreign paintings owned by the National Gallery ended up being included by Cornelis de Vos Two Sisters, Paul Gauguin Landscape from Tahiti and Vincent van Gogh Street.

The Finnish works seen in Fortnite are Axis Gallen-Kallela Kullervo’s departure for war, by Hugo Simberg Fairy tale mixed Eero Järnefeltin The money-grubbers.

Instead of nude sculptures, I ended up joining the game Ville Vallgren’s La pleureuse (The Weeping). In the 3d world, the miniature sculpture is seen significantly enlarged.

Vincent van Gogh’s painting The Street is also placed in the game world of Fortnite. Picture: The National Gallery

The National Gallery the gaming movement can be considered brave during cultural cuts. Developing games is not exactly cheap, and some may ask whether shooting in a virtual art gallery produces genuine art experiences for anyone.

The National Gallery does not want to tell Fortnite-project’s exact budget because of business partners, but says that the amount falls short of the 60,000 euros required by the tender. The producer of digital content considers criticism to be expected.

“You can always question the use of all money. However, I personally think that here we are bringing art to an audience that otherwise would not come across it at all.”

Many parents are also interested in their own child’s use of time. Fortnite it easily takes dozens of hours a week. Does the Finnish government have to participate in the content production of a large American company and at the same time encourage children to endless shooting?

“Myself, I think that if those children are playing anyway, then isn’t it better that the game also includes content produced by cultural actors, which offers an alternative,” says Laamanen.

“And for many children, that content can create an experience.”