Since 2017, I have collaborated with Cuban poet and son of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, Omar Pérez, on a film project to study the role of an artist in the contemporary context and possibility of poetry to be implemented in relation to failed politics. Taking our cue from Frederich Hölderlin’s poem, ‘Bread and Wine’, the work considers the question: ‘What use are poets in times of need?’ Formally, the piece engages with the hierarchical “othering” convention of documenter and subject, as Pérez and I both feature as subject and object, the camera and editing thus performed as a collective, speculating on the question through iterative performance and discourse.

Domesticity, in this case, is a framework for fantasy, creativity, and pedagogy, as well as ennui, intimacy, and fatigue. Within the cracks of personal exploration one can perceive elements of the political situation and history of Cuba. The apartment home is a stage and sanctuary from turbulence, and location where different cultures are brought together. Shot in Havana and edited in Europe.

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