A Coin in Nine Hands: Part Eight


Hélène Binet, Joseph Beuys, Alice Channer, Cesare Fabbri, Guido Guidi, Helen Mirra

12 Jul—14 Sep 2018
Marguerite Yourcenar’s novel, A Coin in Nine Hands (1934), follows the journey of a ten-lira coin as it travels between nine different people on a single day in Rome in 1933.

Inspired by this idea, Large Glass presents the work of a range of artists across nine parts or exhibitions over the coming nine months, revealing connections, exchanges, and highlighting some of the hidden bonds that bring artists together.

Yourcenar rewrote her 1934 novel in 1958/9, changing entire sections of the text. In her afterword she noted: ‘The novel, such as it is today, is half original text and half reconstruction… the old and the new overlap to such an extent that it is almost impossible, even for the author, to tell where one begins and the other ends.’

Youcenar’s words resonated in the development of this final chapter of the project, bringing together different voices through distinct visual elements as it unfolded.

Each exhibition in A Coin in Nine Hands has been conceived individually, but with discernible threads and connections. Some were more literal, some more remote, and some followed a trail that led to an end. At a certain point, an attempt at precise connections was relaxed, instead inviting the participating artists and the art works themselves to transmit their own senses of connection.

Part nine is a publication which brings together some of the core elements of the project.



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