The "Dreigroschenvideo / Threepenny Video", made in collaboration with Miklos Erhardt, is inspired by Bertold Brecht's series of satirical critiques of decayed capitalism: "Threepenny Opera" and "Threepenny Novel" and the author's related convictions on aesthetics and political issues. Artists have rarely achieved such a direct treatment of economic processes as Brecht managed to do in this play and novel series. Especially in the novel, the plot is based as much on a detailed account of economic techniques and behaviour, as it is on psychological and social presentation. In this sense it has much in common with our recent 'Talking About Economy' project series, which was also an attempt to introduce and explore the topic of economy in a direct way within the domain of visual arts. The 'Threepenny Opera'
was first presented in 1928 in Berlin. It was a reworking of John Gay's
'Beggars Opera' written in the early 18th century. The 'Threepenny Novel'
was written later in 1934 as a greatly expanded version. Set in London,
it depicted the criminal activities of a gang of underworld thieves, headed
by Mac Heath ('Mac the Knife'), an enterprising organisation of beggars,
headed by Jonathan Peachum and the rivalry initiated between them through
MacHeath's relationship with Peachum's daughter, Polly. In their efforts
to damage each others reputations, interests and realise some financial
success, they are prepared to exploit their workforce, bribe corrupt police
officers and threaten those around them with violence. Evenually they
come to see a mutual benefit in forming an alliance and continuing their
previously illegal practices under the legal and more respectable guise
of finance and banking.
Choosing to work within
the context of Budapest, Hungary with it's recent development of a stratefied
society - resulting in the relatively new phenomenons of a 'business class'
and at the same time a very obvious prevalence of homelessness and begging
throughout the city - we didn't seek to re-represent the same polemics
of the play and book, but rather to try to relate it to a specifc contemporary
context. In doing so we wanted to allow Hungarian equivalents of the the
polarised groups (beggars and businessmen) that constitute the dialectic
in Brecht's writing to defend themselves to the criticisms posed by Brecht
and to question the accuracy and relevance of the 'Threepenny Opera /
Novel' to today's society. Exhibitions:
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