Jim Avignon

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 (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 in Hamburg. The installation ''Enfants Terribles'' was a homage to the spider sculpture '' Maman'' by Louise Bourgeois, 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, Denmark and Slavin was born in Leningrad (subsequently renamed St.Petersburg), Russia.
They met while students at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg 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 on a scholarship of the ''Foundation Bösenberg'' and in 2016 an artists-in-residence in the art house ''Künstlerhaus im Schlossgarten'' in Cuxhaven. Since 2015 they work under the name Nana ET Matvey in Berlin and Copenhagen.

Work

Enfants Terribles' work builds on the Dada 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 seven little artificial figures called "The Seven Matveys" with colored hats in front of the Nana sculptures of Niki de Saint Phalle: ''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, William Hogarth, or George Grosz. 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). 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:
** Hamburg: ''Enfants Terribles'', Installation on the plateau of Hamburger Kunsthalle
** Hamburg: ''Mensch und Ware'', Altonaer Museum
* 2013:
** Berlin: ''Inszenierte Träume I/II'', ''Galerie Kurt im Hirsch''
** Berlin: ''Inszenierte Träume II/II'', ''Galerie Kurt im Hirsch''
** Roskilde: ''Viking Revival'', Galleri LABR
* 2014:
** Barsinghausen: ''Enfants Terribles - Kinder der Louise B.'', Kunstverein Barsinghausen e.V.
** Hanover: ''Matveys'', Installation by the Nanas on the Leibnizufer
** Hamburg: ''Enfants Terribles - Laufbilder & Videoskulpturen'', Galerie Hengevoss-Dürkop
* 2015:
** Meinersen: ''Kribbel-Krabbel'', Künstlerhaus Meinersen
* 2016:
** Asnæs: ''Enfants Terribles'', Huset I Asnæs
** Cuxhaven: ''Wir sind soweit'', Künstlerhaus im Schlossgarten''Wir sind soweit'' Exhibition views. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
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** Cuxhaven: ''Cuxhavener Kuriositäten'', Künstlerhaus im Schlossgarten
** Berlin: ''Popdada'', Galerie subject-object

Group exhibitions

* 2013:
** Berlin: ''KurtSalon'' mit Jim Avignon, Kathrin Ganser, Sophie Schmidt, Sarah Strassmann u.a. Galerie Kurt im Hirsch, Berlin
* 2014:
** Kolding: ''Zimmer Frei'' Museet på Koldinghus''Museet på Koldinghus''
Website archiv. Retrieved 26 September 2016.

References

Bibliography

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Further reading

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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