The Projection Booth. Cinemas in Regions

The installation ‘The Projection Booth. Cinemas in Regions’ is the first stage of a wider research into cinema culture in the regions of Lithuania. With this study, the media education and research centre Meno Avilys seeks to bring into the spotlight the cultural and architectural heritage of film screening venues in Lithuanian cities and towns (except the cities of Vilnius and Kaunas), and to draw attention to their rapidly decreasing numbers and the current state of the surviving ones.

Out of the 140 cinemas that were active in the end of the previous century, 16 buildings which more or less retain their original appearance are captured in the photographs displayed in the installation. When they were being documented in the autumn of 2020, 5 old cinemas located in the regions of Lithuania still served their film screening purpose: Spindulys in Marijampolė, Dainava in Alytus, Minija in Gargždai, Virinta in Alanta, and Garsas in Panevėžys. The latter was eventually scheduled for demolition. 

Project team: Jogintė Bučinskaitė, Dangiras Bugas, Marija Drėmaitė, Justinas Dūdėnas, Jurgis Griškevičius, Žygimantas Jančoras, Lina Kaminskaitė, Monika Kisliakovaitė, Austėja Kuskienė, Kęstutis Kuskys, Simonas Linkevičius, Marius Lukošiūnas, Auksė Podolskytė, Urtė Sabutytė, Raimonda Tamulevičiūtė

Organiser Meno avilys
Photos by Simas Lin