The Nanas "Sophie", "Caroline" and "Charlotte" on the Leibnizufer in Hanover.
Nanas are sculptures of the French artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002), who use the imagery of Pop Art to portray sensual, colorful, voluminous female bodies with oversized gender characteristics.
"Nana" is an ambiguous term from French for a modern, self-confident, erotic and wicked woman. Niki de Saint Phalle took the ideas of the women's movement in the mid-1960s with the slogan "All power to the nanas!". For the first time their oversized women's sculptures were exhibited in October 1965 in Paris. The life-affirming, happy, colorful, mostly dancing, often larger than life, fat "Nanas" pull themselves through their further work. 1968/69 was the Black Nana in the Wallraf Richartz Museum and 1994 in the Museum Ludwig the Nana on a dolphin. The Nanas first stand for vitality, femininity, free organization without inhibitions and conventions, they unite all women in themselves, are a comprehensive reflection of the female existence.