Jaroslav Kučera Laboratory

G18 Gallery invites visitors to the world of Czechoslovak cinematography not only of the 1960s. The exhibition “Jaroslav Kučera Laboratory” will show the work of the cameraman as creative and artistic. The opening will take place on Monday 19 February 2024 at 6 PM at Štefánikova 5670, Zlín.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is the work of Jaroslav Kučera, who is inherently one of the most important creators of Czechoslovak cinema in the second half of the twentieth century. He is known as a progressive cinematographer who determined the visual form of a number of Czech films (including Diamonds of the Night, Daisies, Fruit of Paradise, All My Good Countrymen and Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet).

“The exhibition builds on previous projects about the (not only) Czech New Wave cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera, which came out of an extensive and completely unknown estate that includes photographs, negatives, slides, family films, never-published daily works, test footage (revealing and post-production editing) and other film materials on 16 mm and 35 mm tape,” says Kateřina Svatoňová, co-curator of the exhibition.

Jaroslav Kučera’s archive is both very varied in terms of material and media, and a perfect “textbook” of various film techniques and possibilities of experimentation with classic film material. For this reason, students from various disciplines of the Faculty of Film and Television Studies at the University of Technology in Zlin were invited to participate in the exhibition, and together they thought about Kučera’s individual media practices and uncovered his ways of working.

“The exhibition of Kučera’s work at the Faculty of Multimedia Communications brings new possibilities compared to previous projects. The aim of this exhibition is therefore not only to present Kučero’s work, but to create a specific laboratory and space for communication – between the past and the present, between photography and film, and between students of different disciplines who are preparing the exhibition together,” adds Svatoňová.

The experimental laboratory will be complemented by the creative workshop G18 EduLab, which was supported by the National Recovery Plan. Visitors of different age groups will have the opportunity to explore the behind-the-scenes work of the cameraman from different angles and through a gallery case. In the first week, the exhibition will also be complemented by an accompanying programme for the students of FMK UTB in Zlin and the public; we will publish the complete accompanying program on our website and social media.

The exhibition will launch with an opening on 19 February 2024 at 18:00 at Štefánikova 5670, Zlin. The exhibition itself will then run from 20 February to 18 April 2024, always open Monday-Thursday from 1 to 6 PM.