Eva, of the German avant-garde performance duo Eva & Adele, died after spinal surgery on May 21. Eva & Adele kept their last names and ages a secret—the duo (an offstage couple as well as onstage) claimed to be "hermaphrodite twins from the future.” It was known that Eva was a transwoman, as the two had an uphill battle to be married in 2011 as two women. They had been performing together at least as far back as the 1980s, appearing at museums as human works of art, and also creating paintings, videos, photos, and costumes. They appeared on the TV show Eurotrash, had their own Swatch line, and were frequently on display at their own museum shows. “Wherever we are is museum,” said Adele. “We don’t just go and do a performance in a gallery and then stop being Eva & Adele afterwards.” “No one really understood what we were doing,” said Eva. “Even those paying us.” She added that “I’m neither a man nor a woman. Neither is Adele. We’ve invented our own sex.”
