ARTISTS: Baloji, Ian Breakwell, Michelle Cheong, Ian Helliwell, Melanie Manchot, Lindsey Mendick, Nova Milne, Leah Shore, Katja Tönnissen
18 Sep – 29 Nov 2020 Viborg Kunsthal
A happy ending?
A new beginning?
First comes the proposal, then the wedding and finally, so the story goes, comes the honeymoon. Originating in early-19th-century upper-class Great Britain, ‘honeymoon’ describes the custom of a newlywed couple going on a holiday together that marks the transition between unmarried and married. The word itself, however, dates back to the 5th century, to describe the month after a wedding when a newlywed couple drank the honey-based alcoholic drink mead during their first moon (or month) of marriage. While ‘honeymoon’ has a positive connotation today, it was first used as a term to warn newlyweds about the decline of love, with the first weeks of marriage as being the sweetest ones.
What happens when the newly minted couple sail off into the sunset? This exhibition invites you into the very tipping point between the most idealistic stage of committed love and the pending realities of ‘until death do us part’.
