Expanded Cinema
Jan Kulka is a Czech artist working in expanded cinema, whose practice engages the material and perceptual conditions of film through custom-built projection systems and handmade formats. His work foregrounds the interplay of light, movement, and support. Kulka explores the instability of perception, where repetition, variation, and interference produce shifting visual fields.
His expanded cinema practice exposes film to its conditions of display, where the image tends toward pure spectacle through shock, physical eruption, and attraction, and folds inward in a kind of implosion as it approaches its limit.
Jan Kulka
90 minsJan Kulka is a Czech artist working in expanded cinema, whose practice engages the material and perceptual conditions of film through custom-built projection systems and handmade formats. His work foregrounds the interplay of light, movement, and support. Kulka explores the instability of perception, where repetition, variation, and interference produce shifting visual fields.
His expanded cinema practice exposes film to its conditions of display, where the image tends toward pure spectacle through shock, physical eruption, and attraction, and folds inward in a kind of implosion as it approaches its limit.
* Film synopses are provided by the artist
Sun 31 May
21:30 - 23:00 / ACUD CLUBGRACIAS PABLO
Czech Republic / Spain, 2025, 20’ 00”, 70mm, German Premiere
A ready-made work constructed from a 70mm film reel of unknown origin. Fragments of an action film — helicopters, chase sequences, rollercoaster trajectories — are reassembled into a continuous field of motion. Through re-projection and rhythmic bursts of light, the original footage is reactivated, displacing narrative in favour of spatial and kinetic intensity. The image unfolds as a dynamic structure of movement, where locomotion, repetition, and scale produce an immersive experience of disorientation and propulsion.
PATTERNS
Czech Republic, 2024, 42’ 00”, 60mm, Berlin Premiere
A handmade film printed on a custom 60mm film base and presented through the Archeoscope, a purpose-built projection apparatus. The work explores the cinematic potential of patterned structures: repetition, variation, and interference unfold as dynamic fields rather than fixed forms. Through live projection, spatial and temporal modulations generate unstable visual configurations that oscillate between order and disruption. Perception is pushed into a continuous process of adjustment, where the eye follows shifting rhythms and the image exceeds stable recognition.
FRINGE SHADES
Czech Republic, 2026, 22’ 00”, 48mm transparent tape / color filters / aluminium tape, World Premiere
Color emerges between light and darkness, not as representation but as event. Working with transparent tape, filters, and reflective surfaces, the piece constructs a field of flicker in which perception oscillates between the physical and the subjective. Minimal means generate unstable chromatic intensities that exceed the image itself, extending into afterimage, rhythm, and retinal persistence. Time is not measured but produced through intervals of light, where vision approaches its own threshold.
SCHEDULE 2026
Wed 27
19.00 / ACUD KINO
Selection #1
Spacing Time
21:30 / ACUD KINO
Experimental
Film Treasures
– Pt.1
Thu 28
16:00 / ACUD KINO
Experimental
Film Treasures
– Pt.2
18.00 / ACUD KINO
Selection #2
Souvenirs
21:30 / ACUD KINO
Focus
Peter Todd
– Pt.1
Fri 29
16.30 / ACUD KINO
Selection #3
Living Skin
19:00 / ACUD KINO
Focus
Peter Todd
– Pt.2
21:30 / ACUD KINO
Focus
Moucle Blackout
Sat 30
10.00 / ACUD ROOFTOP
Workshop
Cécile Fontaine
18.30 / ACUD KINO
Selection #4
Sensuous Light
21.00 / ACUD KINO
Focus
Cécile Fontaine
– Pt.1
Sun 31
10.00 / ACUD ROOFTOP
Workshop
Cécile Fontaine
17.00 / ACUD KINO
Selection #5
Grayscale
19.00 / ACUD KINO
Focus
Cécile Fontaine
– Pt.2
21.30 / ACUD CLUB
Expanded Cinema
Jan Kulka