THE FLOATING CINEMA OF THAILAND

Archipelago Cinema, an auditorium raft designed to float
on the sea, premiered at the inaugural edition of the Film
on the Rocks Yao Noi Festival, curated by Apichatpong
Weerasethakul and Tilda Swinton. The Festival, which took
place from 9th-12th March 2012, is set to become an
annual meeting place for art and film.


The final night of the first edition of Film on the Rocks Yao
Noi took place on Archipelago Cinema, designed by
German-born and Beijing-based architect Ole Scheeren.
Guests were taken by boat through the darkness of the sea
to arrive on a glowing raft in the middle of the quiet waters
of Nai Pi Lae lagoon on Kudu Island. Surrounded by a
dramatic landscape of towering rocks emerging from the
ocean, the audience experienced an atmospheric
convergence of nature and cinematic narratives –
primordial notions of light, sound and stories suspended in
the darkness between sea and sky.

The thought of watching films here seemed surprising“
said Ole Scheeren. „A screen, nestled somewhere between
the rocks. And the audience… floating… hovering above the
sea, somewhere in the middle of this incredible space of
the lagoon, focused on the moving images across the
water: A sense of temporality, randomness, almost like
driftwood. Or maybe something more architectural:
Modular pieces, loosely assembled, like a group of little
islands that congregate to form an auditorium.


A work with a strong connection to the local community,
Archipelago Cinema is based on the techniques used by
fishermen to construct floating lobster farms. The raft is
built out of recycled materials as a series of individual
modules to allow for flexibility for its future use.
Subsequent to a journey which will see the raft travel to
further places as an auditorium for other film screenings
on water, it will eventually return to the island and be
donated to its actual builders, the community of Yao Noi,
as its own playground and stage in the ocean.


Archipelago Cinema is a collaboration between Studio Ole
Scheeren and the Film on the Rocks Yao Noi Foundation,
founded by Nat Sarasas, Chomwan Weeraworawit and
Apichatpong Weerasethakul. It is the first project of Studio
Ole Scheeren since he established his architecture
practice, Buro Ole Scheeren, in Beijing and Hong Kong in
2010. With Archipelago Cinema, Ole Scheeren further
explores his continued interest in non-architectural
projects and interventions, and in creating alternative
scenarios and realities by combining an ability to
comprehend diverse yet specific contexts with the power of
imagination and fantasy. Previous projects by Ole
Scheeren which transcend the boundaries of architectural
production include, among others, the Marfa Drive-In (a
drive-in cinema in the desert of Texas), and the exhibition
Cities on the Move, which Ole Scheeren co-curated and
scenographed in Bangkok in 1999.


Source:
http://buro-os.com/archipelago-cinema-a-floating-auditorium/

Useless