A group of young people destroyed an artwork at the Pame Kaimakli festival in Nicosia on Sunday. According to the festival’s organisers, the group also directed racist and sexist abuse at artists and visitors who tried to stop them.
In a statement, Urban Gorillas, which organises the festival, said four or five young people vandalised the installation at around 9.30pm on 25 October.
The work, titled “O Topos en Insanlik”, which combines Greek and Turkish and translates as “The place is humanity”, was created by three members of the Italian art collective Post Disaster during an artistic residency in Cyprus. It was installed alongside a screening of the film Women Walk Home as part of the festival programme.
When artists, organisers and visitors intervened, they were met with aggressive behaviour, racist and sexist insults, and offensive remarks aimed at people of different ages and identities, the statement said.
The organisers said the group was particularly hostile to the use of Turkish words. They added that members of the group called for a Cyprus free of other ethnicities, in the name of what they described as a “pure” Cypriot identity.
According to the statement, cars were also driven at dangerously high speeds along the festival street before and after the group’s arrest. The organisers said the drivers may have been members of the same group, and that this put pedestrians at risk and created an atmosphere of fear.
Urban Gorillas described the incident as an attack on art, freedom of expression and diversity. It said it was also an attack on the residents, artists and volunteers who have built the festival over years, opening their homes and courtyards to the public.
“Disagreement is legitimate. Destruction, threats and the targeting of people are not,” the statement said.
The organisers condemned all forms of racism, hate speech and intimidation. They said they would continue to defend art, diversity and the right of everyone to share public space safely.
“No one has the right to decide who belongs here and who does not,” the statement added.
