In Dolce Vita, José Toirac once again revisits the visual machinery through which political power constructs its own mythology. The work appropriates a well-known photograph by Spanish photojournalist Enrique Meneses, who documented — and, to some extent, carefully staged and romanticized — the everyday life of Fidel Castro and the barbudos in the Sierra Maestra during the final years of the Cuban Revolution. These images were instrumental in shaping a heroic narrative that could be disseminated both inside and outside the island.

Toirac intervenes in this historical image by overlaying it with the slogan “Dolce Vita” and the unmistakable signature of Christian Dior, creating a provocative collision between revolutionary iconography and the language of luxury branding. The title alludes not only to the glamorous universe of fashion but also to Fidel Castro's acute awareness of image-making. From the outset, the revolutionary leader understood the power of photography and strategically cultivated relationships with prominent international photojournalists, transforming political struggle into a carefully crafted spectacle.

The scene acquires an additional layer of irony through the presence of the book Kaputt, by Curzio Malaparte, an unsettling literary account of the moral and political collapse of wartime Europe. Written by an author whose own ideological trajectory moved ambiguously through Fascism, anti-Fascism, journalism, and political opportunism, Kaputt serves as a reminder that power often survives through its ability to reinvent its own narratives.

As part of Waiting for the Right Time, Toirac exposes the mechanisms through which images migrate from historical documentation to propaganda, and ultimately to commodities. By juxtaposing Fidel Castro with the aesthetics of haute couture, he reveals the porous boundaries between political charisma and consumer desire, suggesting that revolutions, much like luxury brands, rely on repetition, seduction, and the careful construction of collective fantasies.