Dreigroschenvideo - Threepenny Video
Big Hope: Miklós Erhardt & Dominic Hislop.

Project Description:
The "Dreigroschenvideo / Threepenny Video" 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.

We organised two separate workshops in Budapest - one with a group of homeless people and the other with a group of business people. At each workshop, participants were asked to react to selected scenes from a film version of the "Threepenny Opera" (directed by G. W. Pabst in 1931) and quotes from the "Threepenny Novel". Brecht's depictions of character types were related to participants own specific experiences and Brecht's critique of capitalist society to the contemporary global economic situation. Scenes screened and relevant quotes were divided into three themes: "Peachum's Outfitting Emporium for Beggars" - Peachum's creation of a business from beggars; "A Demonstration of Human Misery" - the proposal for a beggars demonstration to upset the coronation ceremony; and "A Victory for Common Sense" - the final scenes in which the central characters cease their 'illegal' activities in order to create a business merger through which they can continue their profiteering by 'legal', 'business' means. The presentation takes the form of a two video installation (one documenting the homeless workshop and the other for the business) in which audio and lower streaming texts come from participants comments and the upper streaming text consists of quotes from the "Threepenny Novel". The screen image is the televsion set showing the selected scenes in the two environments where the workshops were held (the participants themselves, prefering to remain anonymous, cannot be seen). Throughout the video, in the background is the sound of an ambient electronic adaptation of "the Ballad of Mac the Knife".


Sources:
The film, an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's play "Threpenny Opera" (Premiered in Berlin, 1928), ia a Tobis-Warner-Produktion, 1931, directed by G. W. Pabst. The screenplay was written by L. Lania, B. Balázs und L. Vajda. Quotes taken from "Der Dreigroschenroman" by Bertolt Brecht, (first published 1934). Bertolt Brecht Gesammelte Werke 13, Prosa 3, Suhrkamp Verlag.


Acknowledgements:
Thanks to all participants in the workshops (who prefered to remain anonymous) and staff at the following institutions:
MMSZ - Magyar Máltai Szeretetszolgálat, FSZKI - Dzsa György hostel, Menhely Alapítvány, C3 - Centre Of Culture And Communication Goethe-Institut, Budapest Akademie der Künste, Berlin

Thanks also to the following for their help:
Boróka Fehér, Zoltán Gurály, Ádám Lendvai, József Mélyi, Edit Murányi, Elske Rosenfeld, Mark Rossi, Zsolt Somlói, László Sugár, Emese Süvecz, Balázs Úrvölgyi, Ulf Wrede.


Music:
Mark Rossi "Ballad of Mac the Knife" (version)


Contact:
bighope [at] bighope [dot] hu