03.09.2019 Duy Mac

Performative openness: Garage Screen Cinema designed by Syndicate Architects

Garage Screen Cinema by Syndicate Architects in Moscow's Gorky Park is not only a temporary open-air cinema but almost a celebration of the history of film and movie techniques. Set up for the summer opposite OMA's Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, the holographic, truncated pyramid enacts the notion of 'performative openness'.

To enable interaction with the surrounding urban context, the architects rejected the idea of a completely closed-off movie hall, opting for sound-absorbing velvet curtains instead. When raised, the curtains create complete transparency; when lowered, they form a quiet and secluded space for movie-goers.

The shape that Syndicate Architects has given Garage Screen Cinema refers to the diverging bundle of rays that come out of optical movie projectors; in this, cineastes will also recognise the infinite perspective of the characteristic Star Wars opening texts that move away towards the top of the screen to the music by John Williams. Dichroic filters alter surface colours depending on the angle of vision, the time of day and the weather. A neon sign inspired by the visual language of Blade Runner is reflected at night by OMA's museum, thus illuminating the whole square.