Spanish Film Academy Hosts a Photo Exhibit about Old, Closed-Down Cinemas

What have the Victoria, Alegria, Rex, Bahia, España, Imperio and Casablanca cinemas got in common? Well, unfortunately, the fact that no-one will sit in their dark auditoriums to enjoy a film ever again. The Spanish Academy of the Cinematographic Arts and Sciences presents, from 14 September to 23 October, an exhibition of photographs of these former cinemas. Cinemas with their own names, of which only a memory remains.

The old way of watching films has changed with the development of technology and the old temples to the ninth Art have been given new uses or replaced by multi-auditorium complexes, often located within out-of-town shopping centres.

Some thirty photographs by Paco Garrido portray closed cinemas in cities and towns throughout Spain. Buildings which speak to us of a different way of cinema-going and film viewing. Amongst the aged façades are pictures of open-air cinemas, with their faded posters and neon signs; the desolation of abandoned architecture or buildings converted into modern auditoriums.

“I’ve been working on this for some time, trying to reflect the idea of cinemas as their own little worlds. Looking into their features, reflecting everything which makes them recognisable and attractive to any film-lover,” observes Paco Garrido. The exhibition represents an overview of the state of cinemas in Spain over the last few years. A nostalgic backward glance at a custom which has been gradually brought up to date in the name of technological advance and of a society which changes day by day.