Sabine Hess and Nicolas Polli signed their first collaboration with One Bed, Two Blankets, Seventy-Six Rules. After meeting in Ticino and continuing a long-distance relationship, the couple decided to move in together in 2023 and began a project about their life together. Alternating between symbolic representations and dramatizations of their relationship, the project plays with the standards and ideas of a relationship, establishing rules for living harmoniously. The Swiss Cultural Fund UK is proud to support this exhibition at Belfast Photo Festival, alongside an exhibition by Thaddé Comar, How Was Your Dream?

The interview below has kindly been shared by the artists and the Musée des Beaux Arts in Le Locle.

Nicolas Polli: Sabine, the project One Bed, Two Blankets, Eighty-Five Rules is part of a process that began together in 2023, before moving in together. Conceptually, it would be interesting to understand what lies behind such a project and why you chose a residency in Valle Verzasca to initiate it.

Sabine Hess: At the time, I was still living in London, studying and later working there, while you remained in Switzerland. We entered a long-distance relationship. It was beautiful in many ways - the anticipation, the intensity of reunion after weeks or months apart - but it was also lonely at times. Communication wasn’t always easy, and we were both building our individual lives in parallel. In 2023, when we saw the open call for a residency as part of the Verzasca Foto Festival, it felt almost symbolic. Returning to the place where we first met felt like completing a circle. At the same time, we sensed that it might be the right moment to test whether we were capable of living together - or not.

The idea emerged quickly: to use the residency as a real-life experiment in cohabitation, and to transform that experience into a photographic project. Being accepted gave us the space - and the 50 days - to explore this honestly. During that time, we spoke openly about our needs, expectations, fears and desires around the idea of sharing a life.

The images grew directly out of those conversations.

Coming from different photographic backgrounds, the project also became a process of merging our visual languages - finding a shared voice rather than two parallel ones. Alongside the photographs, we began formulating personal “rules” - small, intimate agreements, reflections, and sometimes contradictions. Image and text started to intertwine, eventually forming the first edition of the book, One Bed, Two Blankets, Sixty-Eight Rules

Due to logistical necessities, the project found its exhibition form relatively early in the creation process. At the same time, however, it also emerged in the form of a book. Could you explain the need for these two very different formats? What distinguishes them?

We were very happy to present the first exhibition of the project at the end of our residency, as part of the Verzasca Foto Festival. In anticipation of that moment, we also launched the first small edition of the book.

The exhibition was conceived as a house under construction. Visitors could physically move through it, discovering the images and - hidden within the structure - the rules, at that time 68. The rules were not immediately visible; you had to search for them, connect them to the photographs, and build your own understanding of the relationship between text and image. The unfinished house became a metaphor for the shared space we were trying to build, the fragility and instability of something still in development, and the ongoing negotiation that defines being a couple. The book, on the other hand, carries the same images and texts but transforms them into

something intimate and portable. It resembles a small handbook or manual - something you can hold in your hands, read privately, or place on your bedside table. It becomes an object that can circulate. You can gift it to the person you live with. Perhaps you want to hint at a rule that could also apply in your own household?

We were drawn to the radical contrast between the two formats. The exhibition is spatial,

immersive and collective. The book is compact, intimate and personal. And yet, they function both together and independently. The exhibition emphasizes the architectural and performative aspect of building a shared life, while the book focuses on reflection and quiet dialogue.

On a more pragmatic - and financial - note, it’s also true that before deciding to produce the book, you discovered a very good discount from an online printing service. That practical opportunity made it economically possible to experiment with a small edition and to observe how visitors would respond to the publication.

Sabine Hess and Nicolas Polli, One Bed, Two Blankets, Eighty-Five Rules, Belfast Photo Festival, City Hall, Belfast BT1 5GS, 4 – 30 June 2026. More info

Image Credit: Sabine Hess and Nicolas Polli