Saâdane Afif Is it possible that you have no coal left?, 2023

May 8, 1917

Dear Sir,

Is it possible that you have no coal left? And after having suffered from the cold will we have to die of hunger?

You will easily understand that I cannot offer you another manuscript? You would end up resenting me!

I can only count on your friendly benevolence and thank you in advance for what you might consider doing for your very devoted friend.

Claude Debussy

Translated from French.

Is it possible that you have no coal left? (2023) is an edition of a facsimile letter written by the French composer Claude Debussy to his coal merchant. Following a previous transaction in which Debussy exchanged one of his compositions for coal, the correspondence attests to the prevailing poverty of the French composer; the poverty of money and coal. As so often in Afif's practice, the work is based on a chance find the artist encountered during a research trip. In the tradition of the illusionist trompe-l'œil effect, the shading around the letter gives the impression of three-dimensionality. As a kind of authentication, an embossing of the visualization by the curator Yasmine d'O. can be seen next to the letter as well as her fingerprint. As it is paradigmatic of Afif's artistic creation, the work dissolves the idea of the artist genius through the fusion of different authorships. It also emphasizes the influence that the coal industry had on the cultural sector, especially during the prevailing rationing in the First World War.