Eva & Adele

Born “in the future”, live in Berlin

You will find them at any important cultural event: Eva & Adele. Always together, always dressed the same, bald-headed, with distinctive make-up, and usually in conversation with some important figure from the cultural scene—friendly and interested. These self-anointed “hermaphrodite twins from the future” can also be seen in a series of self-portraits entitled Futuring Company—together, of course, and in the same shrill colors as their make-up. Art and life could not possibly be more intertwined. When they go to town, then always as Eva & Adele—so that people will recognize them, so that they will be art and make art. “Eva & Adele’s work is based on the image that we present to the outside world with a sense of belonging and exaggerated appearance,” says the artistic couple, who generally speak as one. Wherever Eva and Adele appear, people pull out their cameras, thus creating even more photographs.

In their series Cum and Mediaplastic, they turn these amateur and professional photographs into slides or paintings, which they then incorporate into their artistic oeuvre.

Unlike the artistic couple of Gilbert & George, who describe themselves as “living sculptures”, Eva and Adele appear only as their alter egos and never talk about their real identities (except for their physical measurements, as is commonly done for works of art); they are exclusively artistic beings.

Since they come from the future, they claim to have no past. They do not claim any sex. They exist only together. They love each other. Their principles question not only artistic concepts such as artwork, authorship or artistic biography, but also political and sociological definitions. Since their wedding in 1991, Eva and Adele have lived and made art together. Their video Bell Brides (2004) deals with that which they themselves committed to: a lifelong bond. Dressed as brides, they stand more than an hour next to each other, facing the camera. And in the process they really get into a sweat.