The Broken Pitcher

The project The Broken Pitcher investigates the consequences of financialisation and austerity by examining the banking system and the possibilities of transforming our interaction with it. Since 2020, meetings and workshops have been central to the project, aiming to rehearse formats of collaboration, scripting, and research that address the context of foreclosures in relation to debt and colonial relations. Collectivity is at the forefront of the project, countering the isolation and despair generated by the banking system.

The project travels across various locations within and beyond Europe. At De Appel, it takes on a multifaceted form: a life-size scale model of a bank meeting room functioning as both an exhibition space and a film set; a feature film (The Broken Pitcher, 2022) reconstructing a bank meeting in which a family negotiates the impending foreclosure of their home; artistic annotations of the research and the project's aftermath; and a publication assemblage.

Released in the spring of 2022 and inspired by Abbas Kiarostami’s First Case – Second Case (1979), the film The Broken Pitcher reconstructs an ‘unplanned’ bank meeting. The scene is then presented to people from various backgrounds, who respond to the question: “What do you think the bank employees should do?” During this iteration in Amsterdam, the film set is reactivated through round-table discussions with local interlocutors on subjects such as property, displacement, and cooperative housing.

The film set becomes a portal for speculation, taking shape as a collective artwork alongside an installation featuring work by Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Marina Christodoulidou, Peter Eramian, Raissa Angeli, Stelios Kallinikou, Orestis Lazouras, Faysal Mroueh, Nayia Savva, Maria Toumazou, and Emiddio Vasquez. Additionally, there will be a series of recorded video interviews and research material