Money, money, money! To gold cling all. And to silver. The precious metals from the Mansfeld mines, as well as from other mining regions around the world, used to be mostly processed into coins, whose value was measured by weight. Due to its high quality of material and workmanship, the Eisleben silver thaler was highly valued throughout Europe. Today, these metals are primarily used as building materials and in electronic devices, as money has become immaterial, just a data trace. However, it rules the world as it always has. Now, Egill’s trolls, who regularly make excursions from their home in Iceland into the human world, want to create their own money. They mint their own coins from the gold they have hoarded. But is this a good idea? What happens to the free spirit connected only to nature, when it becomes involved in valuing things through money?
The trolls Ŭgh and Bõögâr are the source of inspiration and patrons of Icelandic artist Egill Sæbjörnsson, who helps them realize their projects. Sæbjörnsson’s works playfully and cleverly explore the relationship between the material and the imaginary, between the world and our assumptions about it. His trolls made one of their first major appearances at the 2017 Venice Biennale, where they collaborated with Sæbjörnsson in the Icelandic Pavilion. For My Precious, this collaboration resulted in the work Troll Coins.