Anyone who met EVA & ADELE and felt confident enough to speak to them would hear them say, always with a smile: ‘We come from the future.’ The inseparable artist duo EVA & ADELE dissolved the boundaries between life and art, identity and performance, past and future with their public appearances, which were always planned down to the smallest detail of clothing and jewellery. Every single performance was part of an ongoing art project that began in 1991. EVA passed away on 21 May 2025 in Berlin-Charlottenburg. The Instagram post on their joint profile reads: “EVA went back to the future today. She has left this world and entered the eternal stage. Her belief in the power of art was infinite. FUTURING”
Fig. above: at EVA (right) & ADELE (left) in Charlottenburg, © ART at Berlin + DEEDS.NEWS
Since their first joint performance in 1991 at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, where they presented themselves as a same-sex couple in white wedding dresses under the title HOCHZEIT METROPOLIS, EVA & ADELE have seen themselves as a walking Gesamtkunstwerk. This is also where they used their word invention FUTURING for the first time, namely in the form of a stamp. The word was to become a key concept for their entire oeuvre, appearing again and again in their works, exhibitions and accompanying texts. EVA & ADELE’s appearance – shaved head, identically dressed in extravagant, often pink-coloured women’s costumes, expressively made up – was not only a permanent performative project, but also an expression of their philosophy: ‘Where ever we are is museum’. Their art was a permanent performance that no longer recognised any separation between public presentation and private life. It was completely unthinkable that the two of them would ever leave their flat in Berlin-Charlottenburg ‘just like that’, in private clothes or alone.
EVA & ADELE have never revealed their real names or ages since 1991. Instead, they defined themselves by their body measurements, which they made public as a CV on their website, similar to how tangible works of art are measured. But above all by their inseparable partnership, which lasted over 36 years, making it the longest performance of their lives, as well as their consistent appearance together. According to media reports, the two got married in a civil ceremony in 2011. That year, EVA also had her marital status changed to ‘female’. Although she was born male, her soul was female. Her application was granted by the court.
EVA & ADELE’s works – painting, photography, video, installations – were often created in interaction with their audience. For example, they collected photographs of encounters, which they processed in their work ‘CUM’, and documented their presence in the media in the ‘Mediaplastik’ project.
They achieved international fame through their appearances on the British programme ‘Eurotrash’ in the late 1990s, where they caused a stir with surreal sketches and rituals such as putting banana peels or fish on their heads. Her works have also been exhibited in renowned institutions such as the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin.
EVA died on 21 May 2025 in the flat they shared in Berlin-Charlottenburg, accompanied by ADELE, following an operation on her lumbar spine that would have drained her of her energy. ADELE, who now wants to continue working as a solo artist, announced that she would continue a project with 201 canvases that she had started together with EVA. It had also been EVA’s explicit wish to continue this work.
EVA leaves behind a body of work that has not only enriched the art world, but has also left a lasting impression on the hearts of those who have had the privilege of meeting her. The message of EVA & ADELE – the celebration of difference, the overcoming of gender boundaries and the call to actively shape the future – remains alive. ‘We come from the future,’ they said, a phrase that was more than just a play on the imagination. It was a vision that they brought to life in their art: a future in which conventions were dissolved and new ways of thinking and feeling were possible. This future was not abstract, but concrete – in their work, in their way of life, in the way they challenged the world. It is this future that they brought closer to us with every performance, every picture, every smile.
Text: Stephanie Schneider
