Moving Pictures: Reusing Cinemas as Places of Worship in the Diaspora

Date 26 November 2024
Time 6 - 8pm

An expanded film performance, artist talk, and panel discussion funded by the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) and led by artist filmmaker Julie Marsh and architectural historian Kate Jordan at the University of Westminster.

This event partners with CREAM (Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media) and HOMELandS (Hub on Migration, Exile, Languages and Spaces).

Date: 26th November 2024, 18:00

Location: Zoroastrian Centre for Europe, 440 Alexandra Ave, Rayners Lane, Harrow HA2 9TL

As part of the London Migration Film Festival (LMFF), you are warmly invited to "Moving Pictures," an expanded film performance at the Zoroastrian Centre, formerly the Grosvenor Cinema in Rayners Lane, Harrow. Funded by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), this project examines the adaptive reuse of cinemas as places of worship by diaspora communities. Using the artistic methodology "site-integrity" the project actively involves the faith community in the creative process, generating grassroots perspectives. A custom-designed filming and playback device captures religious practices from the congregation’s viewpoint. Drawing inspiration from early cinema, particularly the Lumière Brothers' Cinématographe, the films are projected back into the site with the same device, maintaining the exact scale and time as the image maps onto the architectural space.

The expanded film performance will be followed by an artist talk by Julie Marsh followed by a panel discussion on Art, Migration and Placemaking chaired by Özlem Köksal with featured speakers Cangbai Wang & Dima Karout.

The event is free to attend and open to all. There will be refreshments served (doors open at 5:50pm)

Please see the full programme and book your place here.