After nine years scurrying in the shadows, the two-person Swedish street art collective known as "Anonymouse” - dubbed "Banksy Mouse” by Swedish media - has finally stepped out of the dark and into a museum exhibition.
The mystery began in late 2016 when miniature homes and businesses, all measuring well below knee height, began appearing on the streets of southern Sweden.
It looked like a bunch of mice had opened a tiny restaurant named "Il Topolino” and a neighbouring nut delicatessen "Noix de Vie." There was no clue as to who created them besides a signature from anonymous artist group "Anonymouse.”
The following years saw more mouse homes and businesses appear in unexpected places: First in Sweden, then all over the world from Britain to Canada.
The original creation on Bergsgatan, a busy street in Malmo, quickly attracted attention and went viral, drawing crowds. The project was even featured on the popular US TV show The Late Late Show With James Corden.
The two artists behind the whiskery art project stepped out of their anonymity earlier this year. Swedes Elin Westerholm and Lupus Nensen both work in show business, making props and sets for film and television.
"The sweet part is that we’re building something for children. Most of us have some kind of relationship to a world where mice live parallel to ours,” said Nensen, citing numerous child-focused fairy tales.
On Friday, a selection of the duo’s creations went on display at the Skissernas Museum in Lund, a short trip from Malmo, to celebrate nine years of "mouse pranks and creativity.”
The duo say the idea for Anonymouse came during a trip to Paris in 2016. Sitting in the French capital’s Montmartre district, they soaked up Art Nouveau influences. Their first creation took six months to build, before they secretively installed it on Bergsgatan one cold, dark night.
"It’s amazing to see a 70-year-old come over with crutches, and people help them down and have a look,” said Nensen. "It really does bring out the child in everyone.”
The artists have since created a mini pharmacy in the Swedish city of Lund, a pastry shop near Stockholm, a castle on the Isle of Man, and a radio studio in Quebec, Canada. The duo created between two and three projects a year.
Record store "Ricotta Records,” which the pair installed in Lund in 2020, features tiny, mouse-sized record covers, such as "Back to Brie” by Amy Winemouse and "Goodbye Yellow Cheese Roll” by Stilton John.
Westerholm said "part of the game is taking something that’s a bit dumb really seriously.”
"We spent a lot of time coming up with mice and cheese puns over the years," Nensén said.
The museum’s exhibit rooms host six miniature worlds, once secretly installed on nearby Swedish streets, as well as sketches and preparatory works from the archives. The exhibit will run until late August.
"They are hidden, they are not in common areas where you would expect an artwork. There’s one in the basement, one on a balcony, and so on,” exhibit curator Emil Nilsson said.
"I hope (visitors) take away a sense of adventure when they enter the museum looking for these hidden miniature worlds.”
After revealing their identities earlier this year, Westerholm and Nensén announced their mouse building adventures were over, bringing an end to the viral street art project.
"It’s been nine years," said Westerholm. "It’s time to end it, I think.”
Anonymouse won't return. But will the duo never build anything small in a public place again?
"We never know, we can’t promise anything,” Westerholm said. - AP
