VHS Archive Jam Session
Line up: VHS tapes, chosen by the audience

Over the past twenty years, Cavia has built up a wonderfully chaotic VHS archive: festival submissions, homemade tape compilations, experimental films, commercial releases, underground oddities, and even some adult titles, all sitting side by side on the shelves. Together they show how VHS not only brought cinema into living rooms, but also made it possible for low-budget and far-flung productions to travel, circulate, and find audiences outside official circuits.

This event is an experiment in bringing that archive back to life. Instead of a fixed program, the afternoon begins with a 40-minute collective exploration session. The audience is invited to climb the archive ladder and explore the shelves, selecting tapes that catch their attention through a title, a cover, or sheer curiosity. In small groups, participants can then watch their chosen tapes using one of the many TVs with VHS players installed throughout the space. Together, we decide which tape fragments should make it onto the big screen. The session evolves into a “jam session” screening shaped in real time by the people in the cinema room.

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