by Carolina Sculti // Feb. 6, 2026
The 21st Forum Expanded, presented by the Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art, will run from February 12th to 22nd as a part of the 76th Berlinale, presenting an experimental series of films, video installations, exhibitions and performances at silent green Kulturquartier’s Betonhalle and cinema. Berlinale Forum Expanded aims to broaden the understanding of cinema as a medium, pushing the boundaries of convention and creating new frameworks for socio-artistic discourse.
This year’s program, titled ‘Unauthorized Versions,’ highlights the ways in which our histories are written by individuals and states, often with gaps, omissions, counter-narratives and revisions. Amidst uncertainty, political unrest and ongoing wars, the program explores the question of who has authority to create and maintain historical narratives. Presenting works from 30 countries, the installations, films, videos and performances bring to light seemingly forgotten perspectives whose presence open up space for reflection, remembrance and resistance.
Exhibition
‘Unauthorized Versions’
Feb. 13–22, 2026
silent-green.net/forum-expanded-unauthorized-versions
silent green Kulturquartier, Betonhalle, Gerichtstraße 35, 13347 Berlin, click here for map
The group exhibition at silent green’s Betonhalle features seven installations, including the Forum’s first ever video game, each exploring unique perspectives on colonialism. Riar Rizaldi’s video installation ‘Fanfictie: Volcanology,’ focused in Indonesia between the 18th and 19th centuries, examines the tensions between colonial scientific activity and spiritual interpretations of the natural world. ‘Butterfly Stories: Malaise II,’ a multi-channel video installation by Laurence Favre, made up of layered, fragile butterflies, explores the idea of “unarchiving,” challenging the binaries and rigidity imposed by natural history museum collections. Cassandra Gardiner and Juan Mateo Menendez will present ‘Land Invaders,’ a video game inspired by the arcade classic Space Invaders, where players must prevent Christopher Columbus from reaching the shores of Turtle Island with his ships. The project is presented with the support of the Indigenous Screen Office.
Laurence Favre: ‘Butterfly Stories: Malaise II,’ film still // Copyright Laurence Favre
Expanded Cinema Performances
Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen: ‘Born of the Yam’
Screening: Feb. 13; 8pm
berlinale.de/programme/202616370
Bigum + Björge: ‘Metanoia’
Screening: Feb. 18; 8:30pm
berlinale.de/programme/202615792
silent green Kulturquartier, Betonhalle, Gerichtstraße 35, 13347 Berlin, click here for map
Forum Expanded is presenting two expanded cinema performances that transform the cinema space into a broader stage for image and sound, using analog film and slide projections. Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen, two Singaporean performers, will perform ‘Born of the Yam.’ Using multiple modified 16mm projectors, DIY machinery and 16mm film loops combining hand-processed and inkjet-printed sequences, the performance centers around an imagined mythology recurring across the artists’ ‘Unending Island’ project—the birth of a demigod from a yam—which explores ideas of ritualism and modern idolization. Danish duo Bigum + Björge will present ‘Metanoia,’ a dreamlike landscape created by moving, flickering images and live-generated acoustic sounds; the performance represents a shift in perception, from distanced observation of our surroundings to an immersive perception through nature’s rhythms and transformations.
Mark Chua & Lam Li Shuen: ‘Born of the Yam,’ film still // Copyright Mark Chua & Lam Li Shuen
Film Restorations
Atteyat Al Abnoudy: ‘Sad Song of Touha’ &
Hussein Shariffe: ‘The Dislocation of Amber’
Screening: Feb. 16; 12pm
berlinale.de/programme/2026339890
Claudia von Alemann and Reinold E. Thiel: ‘Exprmntl 4 Knokke’
Screening: Feb. 17; 3:30pm
berlinale.de/programme/202600465
Ken and Flo Jacobs: ‘Let There Be Whistleblowers’
Screening: Feb. 18; 8:30pm
berlinale.de/programme/202616293
silent green Kulturquartier, Betonhalle, Gerichtstraße 35, 13347 Berlin, click here for map
With the world premiere of the new restoration of Claudia von Alemann and Reinold E. Thiel’s 1968 film ‘Exprmntl 4 Knokke,’ capturing the legendary avant-garde film festival held in a Belgian seaside resort, Forum Expanded takes a look back at the history of experimental film in Europe. This program of restored films will show the 1972 work by Egyptian filmmaker Atteyat Al Abnoudy, ‘Sad Song of Touha,’ and Sudanese director Hussein Shariffe’s 1975 ‘The Dislocation of Amber.’ Each of the films depicts moments in time of their respective cities, Cairo and Suakin, and were restored by Cinematheque Cairo. Lastly, the short film ‘Let There Be Whistleblowers’ (Forum Expanded 2007) will be screened once again, in memory of Ken and Flo Jacobs, the American avant-garde film pioneers who passed away in 2025.
Atteyat Al Abnoudy: ‘Sad Song of Touha,’ film still // Copyright Atteyat Al Abnoudy
Screening
Burak Çevik: ‘The Weary Hours of Two Lab Assistants’
Screening: Feb. 20; 6:30pm
berlinale.de/programme/202609161
silent green Kulturquartier Betonhalle, Gerichtstraße 35, 13347 Berlin, click here for map
Burak Çevik’s ‘The Weary Hours of Two Lab Assistants’ follows the story of two lab assistants studying an unknown substance using methods and machines unknown to us. Late at night as exhaustion settles in, one of the assistants brews Turkish coffee for the other, and the night shifts from stringent to laboratory logic to fortune-telling, exploring the various ways in which knowledge moves through and out of us. The two women imagine another way of knowing, where rational inquiry and intuitive perception coexist.
Burak Çevik: ‘The Weary Hours of Two Lab Assistants,’ 2026, film still // Photo by Fol Films
Screening
Nima Nassaj: ‘Fruits of Despair’
Screening: Feb. 15; 7:30, Feb 17; 6pm
berlinale.de/programme/202608915
silent green Kulturquartier, Betonhalle, Gerichtstraße 35, 13347 Berlin, click here for map
An Iranian filmmaker, in the midst of shooting a documentary on the Palestine–Israel conflict, is suddenly thrust into war when violence breaks out in his own country. Forced to flee Tehran with his family, he takes temporary shelter in a suburban home where daily life narrows into uncertainty and waiting. Over 12 tense days, the project shifts into a self-reflective diary shaped by displacement, fear and close observation. Through fragments of news, personal footage and moments of introspection, he documents not only the unfolding conflict but also his own psychological and emotional unravelling. As he returns to the story of his original subject, an unsettling parallel appears: his current reality echoes what his subject lived through 40 years earlier. The line between observer and participant collapses, turning the work into a meditation on survival, exile and identity. Instead of merely chronicling events, ‘Fruits of Despair’ examines how conflict reshapes life, memory and authorship, tracing both personal and collective histories caught between war and reflection.
Nima Nassaj: ‘Fruits of Despair,’ 2026, film still // Courtesy of the artist
