After maintaining a long-distance relationship for several years, Sabine Hess and Nicolas Polli decided to move in together in 2023, a year that also marked the start of the couple’s artistic collaboration. Their cohabitation began during a residency at Verzasca Foto Festival, which led to the creation of this work, consisting of photographs and texts laying out sixty-eight rules for living together. The project continued a year later during a residency at La Becque, with resulting in an exhibition for the Biennale Images Vevey 2024, during which new images were produced and eight rules were added.

Through photographs and texts, this intimate, humorous and experimental work explores the norms and ideas surrounding their perception of a relationship. The couple shares their reflections on the challenges encountered in their different forms of living together, and the solutions they have come up with: a set of rules on how to navigate life as a couple, but also a personal manifesto on how to grow together.

The installation invites the public to ‘enter’ their home, which is constantly evolving, transforming and adapting, just like their relationship. The project, also published as a book by Ciao Press, is now in its fourth version, presented at the Maison de l’enfance et de l’adolescence in the form of an original installation, designed specifically for this venue.

A collaboration with Fondation Convergences.