It’s hard to talk about a piece created by HellFun without talking about HellFun… HellFun is a collective, a narrative and a principle. Their motto is “brave and pathetic is better than drowning in shame” and they work at the intersection of performance and moving image. Often their pieces derive from the artists’ “third self” as they see it, which is not a better or worse self but one that lives out fantasies and freedoms that the artists’ personal selves alone cannot.

For ECLIPSE, HellFun will present The Vacation x EXTRA EXTENDED: The Road Journey, which is part of their ongoing series I’m in the Mood for Love (2015-2021). The work unfolds with the characters Nilla and Tony, who are two lovers running a baby-care business called FFF (Föräldra Fritt Forever). This is a self-sufficient economic system for Nilla and Tony, who breed their own children through surrogate mothers and fathers. Through this model, Tony and Nilla are being reproduced an infinite number of times without personally having to use their own bodies, as they see pregnancy as a psychologically, socially, and physically exhausting experience. Through the baby-care business, they take a paid holiday to go to the island of Hydra, in Greece, to relax and to increase their depleted libidos with help from an octopus friend.

THE VACATION x EXTRA EXTENDED: The Road Journey, 2021
Three-channel video installation
Two benches, sand dunes, one banner
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artists
With the support of Mondriaan Fund