“Cinémas Art Déco at Brussels”

From the end of the 1920s, cinemas were the meeting point between cinema and architecture, thanks to the advent of Art Deco. The needs of cinema operators in terms of volume, acoustics and decor for sound cinema, as well as the desire for comfort and prestige, were matched by the innovative construction techniques and aesthetics of Art Deco. The result is an architecture of dreams, inside and out.

Visitors will enter this magical world through written and visual evocations of the great ‘first exclusive’ city-centre cinemas of the period, such as the Plaza, the Métropole, the Eldorado, the Variétés and the Cinéma des Galeries.

Period images will resonate with contemporary photographs by Marie-Françoise Plissart taken for the book Cinémas de Bruxelles by Isabel Biver & Marie-Françoise Plissart (2020, CFC-Editions) and those by Joan Bracco.

This period can be seen and experienced through the voices and quotes of spectators, notably through the Cinémas de Bruxelles augmentés installation by Christian Châtel, Christl Lidl and Isabel Biver, where audiences will be able to immerse themselves in an immersive device to see and hear testimonies illustrating nine major Brussels cinemas.

Curator: Isabel Biver
Set design: Architecture particulière, Aurélie Ranalli
Graphics: Mix&Match, Juliette de Patoul

Guided tours and activities:

• 8/02, 08/03 & 12/04: guided tours of the former Eldorado cinema & the exhibition by curator Isabel Biver for Arkadia
• 15 & 16/03: guided tours of Cinémas Art Déco (outdoors) and tours of the old Eldorado (indoors) for the Banad Festival
• 15/03, 18/03, 05/04, 19/04: exhibition tours for the Brussels Art Deco Society
• 27/03: special screening of The Great Gatsby (Jack Clayton, 1974), Grand Eldorado, UGC De Brouckère, original version with French subtitles.
• 12/04 & 19/04: family workshops by curator Isabel Biver ‘Create your own film!
• 22/04: Cinémas Art Déco conference in Brussels for the Brussels Art Deco Society
• 27/04: guided tour of the Fibrocit collection in Courtrai by its director Benedict Geers, organised by the Brussels Art Deco Society

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Photo credits
1. Black and white interior: Cinéma Eldorado, Marcel Chabot, 1933 © CIVA Collections, Brussels
2. Façade: Ancien cinéma Métropole, 2020 © Marie-Françoise Plissart