«Cinema is an urban invention by all means. It was born in the neighborhoods of Lyon and had its official premiere in the boulevards of Paris. With its rapid spreading it “sneaked into” every capital of the world.»
Michel Marie, Le cinéma dans la cité
Francois Beguin, in his article “Comment le cinema a su habiter la ville” (How the cinema gave life to the city), supports the idea of a relationship where the cinema integrates into the city life and adapts to an extensive variety of spatial, social and technical situations. The cinema halls are understood as a part of the structure of the urban tissue, not only in terms of neighborhood, but as well in terms of the city as a whole. Exactly like that, the development of the cinema in Athens is connected to the formation and the development of the new city. The structure and the geographic dispersion of the cinema have been following a parallel course with the development of the urban spaces of the city.
Open air cinemas appeared of the first time in Athens as a summer attraction in 1910, combining the spectacle with drinks. The first open air cinema in Athens is considered to be a junkyard near Syntagma square, where two French operators of “Pathé” company did some open air projections. During 1950 and 1960 (the “golden age” of Greek cinema), open air cinemas in Athens became the most popular means of entertainment for the citizens. It was established as an alternative, local and cheap way of entertainment. Unfortunately, since 1970, the invasion of the television and the video, the “antiparochi” system, the constantly raising value of land in Attica, and the lack of particular policy from the government, lead to a rapid decline, and, nowadays only a few open air cinemas have survived.
The project is located in the modern city and it examines the various parameters that have formed the urban reality today in Athens. The collected data show a city in transformation and a situation of instability, as it tries to correspond to the demands of globalization. In this environment, and after extensive research, we try to form a new structure that will be installed in the “negative” spaces of the urban tissue, occupying existing gaps in the city. Through its action, it will process the existing elements and give them back to the urban space with a new identity, transforming them into positive ones. The “negative” spaces become dynamic and productive.
We try to achieve the re-evaluation of forgotten spaces inside the city, under new circumstances, and the creation of a new cultural network. How can the open air cinemas trigger the creation of a new urbanity? What will happen if open air cinemas as a way of entertainment become again places of interaction and generation of urban incidents in zones with high population density and incense social contradictions? As zones of interest, the neighborhoods of Kypseli, Patisia and Exarchia were selected, because of their density and the diversity of the population, the short distance from the city centre and the really high density of cinemas that existed there during 1950-1960, in comparison to other suburbs of Athens.
