A Threepenny Opera

About

Martin Boyce | Claire Hooper | Cara Tolmie | Mark Wallinger S1 Artspace presents 'A Threepenny Opera,' a group show curated by Thom O'Nions. Preview | Friday 15 July | 6.30 - 8.30pm 16 July - 27 August 2011 The 1931 film of Bertold Brecht's The Threepenny Opera exists in two versions. Made by GW Pabst in the early years of sound it was filmed in its first version with a German speaking cast. The set was then reused with a different cast recording the film in French (a planned English version never happened due to budget restraints). What Pabst produces is a film in two formations, which are parallel in their landscape and sets. What becomes interesting however are the slippages and fluctuations in meaning between the two casts and languages, with each film having its own identity, nuance and ambiguity. The exhibition A Threepenny Opera brings together a set of works that use the idea of staging to articulate a multiplicity of languages and interpretations. The exhibition takes the idea of different languages or casts existing within one set as a way of looking at how certain artworks deal with the idea of the stage or prop as a setting for multiple vocabularies, readings or narratives.