Smithson's 'Cinema Cavern' seen through our
present perspective would have been a great project
if we had been invited to use the caves that
are situated beneath the City of Luxembourg for
a temporary cinema.
But the site for the cinema is a small square
in the shape of a quarter circle in a
neighbourhood called Bonnevoie. Nevertheless,
it is not a coincidence that we are caught by
the simplicity of Smithson's Cinema Cavern, for
which he took a site as it is given, and worked
with the parameters and limits that create the
potential to get the maximum from an existing
situation.
In fact, the square in Bonnevoie is - because of
this particular shape - very well suited for a
cinema. Everything is already there: the
projection wall, the slightly curved backside,
and the natural border with the street, formed
by the trees. With Apolonija Sustersics we
developed a cinema that is made for and
thinking from the site.
Sunset Cinema consists of three elements.
Podium/tribune, screen and box with minimum