The Broken Pitcher

Free admission!

The video installation "The Broken Pitcher" focuses on an event from 2019: In Cyprus, a family is negotiating the foreclosure of their family home in a bank branch. The outcome of the conversation remains open, but seems unpromising for the people concerned. Foreclosures were imposed as a measure by representatives of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund during the time of the economic crisis of the Cypriot government from 2012. The situation of the family portrayed in the film is representative of many others.

The video work consists of a first part in which the bank appointment is re-enacted by actors. A speculative reconstruction of the bank room, conceived on the basis of the family's memory logs, serves as a set and was developed in collaboration with a group of artists. Each object in the room is a work of art that is present at the encounter and registers the possibility of a different reality. Inspired by Abbas Kiarostami's film "First Case, Second Case" (1979, Iran), in the second part of the video various people interviewed react to the reenactment. Their answers reflect perspectives on the internationally widespread problem of real estate speculation and the resulting debt: from interest groups in Cyprus, rent activists from Barcelona, Berlin and Beirut, from people who have experienced something similar, as well as from lawyers, economists and artists.

"The Broken Pitcher" focuses on collaboration and dialogue. It negotiates the question of how the financial system works and how one could intervene in its processes and change them. In Munich, the work will be shown on several evenings in a public space between June and August 2023. After the screenings, there will be time for an exchange.

With Raissa Angeli, Dimitris Chimonas, Stelios Kallinikou, Athina Kassiou, Orestis Lambrou, Orestis Lazouras, Panagiotis Mina (Pyrgatory Studios), Faysal Mroueh, Keti Papadema, Nayia Savva, Nikos Stephou, Maria Toumazou, Rumen Tropchev, Emiddio Vasquez a. o.

Handout (PDF)
Friday, June 30
7 pm
Haig Aivazian, Santi Mas de Xaxàs Faus, and Michael Koppe discuss housing issues in their respective cities and present different strategies for confronting them.
Moderated by Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Marina Christodoulidou, Peter Eramian

Haig Aivazian is an artist based in Beirut. During his work as artistic director of the Beirut Art Center (2020-2022) he founded the online magazine thederivative.org
Santi Mas de Xaxàs Faus is an activist at PAH (Plataforma de Afectadas por la Hipoteca; engl. ), a Spanish grassroots organization that fights for the right to housing. PAH is a horizontal, nonviolent, assembly-based and nonpartisan movement. To the download of the PAH Handbook published by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.
Michael Koppe is a member of the Munich-based new building project Görzer128 part of the Mietshäuser Syndicate.

8.30 pm
Film screening "The Broken Pitcher" (69 min.)


Friday, July 7
7 pm
Introduction by Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Marina Christodoulidou, Peter Eramian. In English language.
Live performances by Raissa Angeli and Natalie Yiaxi. Parts in English language.

Raissa Angeli is a visual artist living and working in Nicosia, Cyprus. She works mainly in the field of sculpture.
Natalie Yiaxi is a multidisciplinary artist based in Nicosia. Through the use of different mediums, devices and strategies, her work encompasses an ongoing attempt to capture the ineffable, the unnoticed, and those affectual aspects of everyday life.

8.30pm
Film screening "The Broken Pitcher" (69 min.). English and German subtitles.

Friday, July 14
Please note! The event starts one hour later: 8 pm
Sabine Herrmann from the Mietshäuser Syndicate Project Ligsalz 8 (Munich), Verena Hägler from the Mietshäuser Syndicate Project Initiative Wörth8 (Munich) and Magdalena Amann from the Project Initiative sherlo (Augsburg) present their organizations. Event in German.

9.15 pm
Film screening "The Broken Pitcher" (69 min.). English and German subtitles.


Friday, July 21
Please note! The event starts one hour later: 8 pm
Moritz Burgkardt from #ausspekuliert presents the work of the grassroots initiative. #ausspekuliert has been campaigning for affordable housing and against social exclusion in our cities and across the country since 2018. In German.

On the occasion of the last screening of "The Broken Pitcher" in Munich, the eponymous record "The Broken Pitcher: A Soundbank" is being released. Emiddio Vasquez, founder of the label and event series Moneda (Cyprus and Arizona), is present for a performance in which attendants will witness the manufacturing process of the record while engaging in collective listening, leading up to its official release. In English language.

9.15 pm
Film screening "The Broken Pitcher" (69 min.). English and German subtitles.


The project "The Broken Pitcher" takes place in cooperation with Kunstraum Thkio Ppalies, Nicosia, Public Art Munich, Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin and Beirut Art Center.

With generous support from the Cyprus Deputy Ministry for Culture, the Federal Cultural Foundation, the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony and the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.
Sponsored by Public Art München, Cultural Department of the City of Munich.

Concurrently with the project "The Broken Pitcher", the exhibition "Natascha Sadr Haghighian. Now that I can hear you my eyes hurt (Tumult)" is on view.