Enfants Terribles, also Nana ET Matvey,
, Website of the artist duo, Retrieved 16 August 2015. is an artist duo consisting of Nana Rosenørn Holland Bastrup (short: Nana Bastrup) (born 1987) and

Matvey Slavin Matvey Slavin, also known as MatWay (russian: Матвей Александрович Славин) born on 19 April 1987 in Leningrad (modern day Saint Petersburg) is a German-Danish artist.

(born 1987). The duo was founded in Hamburg in 2012 and named after their installation ''Enfants Terribles'' which, in May 2012, was exhibited on the large paved area outside the

Hamburger Kunsthalle The Hamburger Kunsthalle is the art museum of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is one of the largest art museums in the country. It consists of three connected buildings, dating from 1869 (main building), 1921 (Kuppelsaal) and ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. The installation ''Enfants Terribles'' was a homage to the spider sculpture '' Maman'' by

Louise Bourgeois Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (; 25 December 191131 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a varie ...

, and consisted of sixteen baby spiders around Bourgeois' existing sculpture.''Spinnenbrut: Enfants Terribles.''
DIE WELT, 11 May 2012, p. 29, Retrieved 21 June 2015.

Life and education

Bastrup was born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, Denmark and Slavin was born in Leningrad (subsequently renamed St.Petersburg), Russia. They met while students at the

Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg The , also known as HFBK Hamburg, is an arts university in Hamburg, in northern Germany. It dates to 1767, when it was called the ; later it became known as . The main building, in the Uhlenhorst quarter of Hamburg-Nord borough, was designed by ...

and have since produced a number of joint exhibitions and public actions in Germany, Denmark and Austria under the name "Enfants Terribles".''Enfants Terribles''
ArtFacts.Net - the international gallery guide for modern, contemporary and emerging art. Retrieved 23 August 2015. In 2014-2015 they became artists-in-residence in the art house in

Meinersen Meinersen is a municipality in the district of Gifhorn, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated between the rivers Oker and Aller, approx. 12 km west of Gifhorn, and 25 km southeast of Celle. The Municipality Meinersen includes the vi ...

on a scholarship of the ''Foundation Bösenberg'' and in 2016 an artists-in-residence in the art house ''Künstlerhaus im Schlossgarten'' in

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is a town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has a footprint o ...

. Since 2015 they work under the name Nana ET Matvey in Berlin and Copenhagen.

Work

Enfants Terribles' work builds on the

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

movement. Taboos are one of its main themes.'' "Enfants terribles" überraschen mit interaktiven Videoinstallationen''
, Calenberger Online News. Retrieved 21. June 2015 In the year 2014 the performance artists put in

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

seven little artificial figures called "The Seven Matveys" with colored hats in front of the Nana sculptures of

Niki de Saint Phalle Niki de Saint Phalle (; born Catherine Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle; 29 October 193021 May 2002) was a French sculptor, painter, filmmaker, and author of colorful hand-illustrated books. Widely noted as one of the few female monumental sculp ...

: ''The Admirer'', ''The Critic'', ''The Know-It-All'', ''The Devotee'', ''The Sceptic'', ''The Tourist'' and ''The Destroyer''. The performative installation was realized not only because of the first name of Nana Bastrup, but also because of the disputes about the art form in Hanover in the 1970s.''Die Nanas haben Gesellschaft''
, Hannoversche Allgemeine, 2 August 2014. Retrieved 21 June 2015. The duo practices a type of pictorial satire that follows the tradition of artists

Jacques Callot Jacques Callot (; – 1635) was a baroque printmaker and drawing, draftsman from the Duchy of Lorraine. He is an important person in the development of the old master print. He made more than 1,400 etchings that chronicled the life of his peri ...

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraving, engraver, pictorial social satire, satirist, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from Realism (visual arts), realistic p ...

, or

George Grosz George Grosz (; ; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Obj ...

. In 2014 they invented a form of expression they called "Laufbilder". The method for producing these works is: inkjet prints of photographs of previous exhibitions or performances on recycling paper, collage interventions carried out by Nana Bastrup, and pencil drawings added by Matvey Slavin are united in prints on PVC tarp, leaving color test patterns visible on the bottom and side margins. This procedure results in the rendition of “digital Gobelins” which recall classic tapestries, but in reality are printed advertising banners with loops.''Enfants Terribles—Motion Pictures and Video Sculptures''
Webseite Galerie Hengevoss-Dürkop, 21 October 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2015. The motto of the artist duo is ''art is footwork''. The "Laufbilder" (running images or run of images) recreate views and situations of exhibitions that Enfants Terribles have realized in the past. The works deal with socially relevant issues and reflect critically the art market, the art scene, and the role the artists adopt in these. Bastrup and Slavin connect their art career, symbolic compounds of elements and grotesque situations. The cast of characters that populate the artist´works are drawn from their personal engagement with that art scene. In the exhibition ''Popdada'' in Berlin 2016 Bastrup and Slavin showed a selection of popdadaistic works: ''Laufbilder (motion pictures)'', ''Mauerwerke (masonry)'' and ''video sculpture Dada Child, Little Brother 2014-2016''. The black lacquered child figure sitting on a plinth holds in one hand a screen with the video ''Popdada'' 2010-2016 near his face. In the other outstretched hand is a toy gun, which he aims with. With the exhibition the artists named and founded the art form Popdada (also Popdadaism) - 100 years after the founding of Dada (also

Dadaism Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

). The intention of the popdadaistic concept is not to question the world for its conventionality and to parody, but because of the banality and manipulation."Artfacts.net - Enfants Terribles''
Exhibition "Popdada". Retrieved 27 September 2016

Duo exhibitions and public performances

* 2012: **

: ''Enfants Terribles'', Installation on the plateau of

** Hamburg: ''Mensch und Ware'', Altonaer Museum * 2013: **

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

: ''Inszenierte Träume I/II'', ''Galerie Kurt im Hirsch'' ** Berlin: ''Inszenierte Träume II/II'', ''Galerie Kurt im Hirsch'' **

Roskilde Roskilde ( , ) is a city west of Copenhagen on the Danish island of Zealand. With a population of 53,354 (), the city is a business and educational centre for the region and the 10th largest city in Denmark. It is governed by the administrative ...

: ''Viking Revival'', Galleri LABR * 2014: **

Barsinghausen Barsinghausen () is a town in the Hanover (district), district of Hanover, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated at the Deister chain of hills approx. 20 km west of Hanover. Barsinghausen belongs to the historic landscape Calenberg Land and ...

: ''Enfants Terribles - Kinder der Louise B.'', Kunstverein Barsinghausen e.V. **

: ''Matveys'', Installation by the Nanas on the Leibnizufer **

: ''Enfants Terribles - Laufbilder & Videoskulpturen'', Galerie Hengevoss-Dürkop * 2015: **

: ''Kribbel-Krabbel'', Künstlerhaus Meinersen * 2016: **

Asnæs Asnæs is a town in Odsherred Municipality in northwestern Zealand in Denmark. It is situated approximately 90 kilometres west of Copenhagen and has a population of 3,073 (1. January 2025).

: ''Enfants Terribles'', Huset I Asnæs **

: ''Wir sind soweit'', Künstlerhaus im Schlossgarten''Wir sind soweit'' Exhibition views. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
/ref> ** Cuxhaven: ''Cuxhavener Kuriositäten'', Künstlerhaus im Schlossgarten ** Berlin: ''Popdada'', Galerie subject-object

Group exhibitions

* 2013: ** Berlin: ''KurtSalon'' mit

Jim Avignon Enfants Terribles, also Nana ET Matvey,
, Website of the artist duo, Retrieved 16 August 2015. is an artist duo consis ...

, Kathrin Ganser, Sophie Schmidt, Sarah Strassmann u.a. Galerie Kurt im Hirsch, Berlin * 2014: **

Kolding Kolding () is a Denmark, Danish seaport city located at the head of Kolding Fjord in the Region of Southern Denmark. It is the seat of Kolding Municipality. It is a transportation, commercial, and manufacturing centre and has numerous industria ...

: ''Zimmer Frei'' Museet på Koldinghus

Interdisciplinary Projects and Collaborations

In an interdisciplinary project,

and Nana Bastrup collaborated as ''ENFANTS TERRIBLES'', creating the so-called ''Laufbilder'' as ''digital tapestries'' and ''video sculpture''s. These works inspired choreographer Jessica Nupen for her performance art piece ''ENFANTS TERRIBLES''. The performance took place on November 10, 2014 at the Galerie Hengevoss-Dürkop in Hamburg, as part of the eigenarten Interkulturelles Festival 2014.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

''popdada.net''
Popdada - website of the artist duo
''nanaetmatvey.com''
Website of the artist duo
Artfacts.net - Enfants Terribles
{{Authority control Dada German pop artists German artist groups and collectives German contemporary artists