In the latest dispatch from A Room for London – a hotel installation in the shape of the boat in Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness– we hear from Syrian poet and perennial Nobel contender Adonis.
As part of a year-long project by Artangel, a writer is invited to stay in the boat, which is moored on top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank, for four days every month - tasked only with writing about rivers, London or the legacy of Joseph Conrad. Adonis, accompanied by his longtime translator Khaled Mattawa, gives his thoughts on Syria's current political turbulence, explains why he believes poetry ought not to be used as an ideological tool, and considers the literary figures associated with London - Shakespeare, Eliot, Conrad himself - all of whom anchored him to his task even while the wind shook his temporary home on its foundations.
During the year we are also live-streaming a series of concerts from A Room for London; take a look at what's been going on here.
