TENDER

Tender captures the dispersal of a monumental, yet nearly invisible public artwork – the circulation into the economy of 120,000 U.S pennies, engraved on their edge with the appropriated phrase “THE BODY WAS ALREADY SO FRAGILE”. Drawing a connection between the human body and the economy, artist Jill Magid distributed these pennies—equivalent to the first $1,200 stimulus check issued by the U.S. Treasury as part of The CARES Act—throughout New York City bodegas via cash-in-transit trucks. Alongside these hand-to-hand exchanges, the film explores the instability wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, underscoring who is most vulnerable—both physically and economically—to global crisis.