The Cinemas Project is a program of major, new contemporary artworks that explore the spaces of cinema in regional Victoria. These projects, by five of Australia’s leading contemporary artists, evoke both the mechanics of film as well as the history and present day reality of cinema. In many cases the works are housed within or make reference to cinema buildings that still stand, have vanished or have been re-purposed.

In the early days of film, movie theatres occupied a pivotal place in our communities often doubling as town halls, dance halls and even skate rinks. They were places of social gathering but also of imagination and fantasy. The Cinemas Project aims to explore and to reignite these sites of living memories, spirited visions, and future possibilities.

Each of the five artists has worked in relation to a single location. In this way the history of cinema in regional Victoria provides an impetus for the contemporary artworks that have been commissioned for The Cinemas Project. The resulting artworks provide us with imaginative relationships and reflections upon the place of cinema.

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/24601