CINEMAS

A selection of photo series by Hiroshi Sugimoto created between 1977 and 2015 as a starting point for an animated video miniature: in the film images in Sugimoto's photos, which are fused and frozen into a white surface using long exposure in cinemas, theaters and movie theaters, Tom & Jerry cartoons come to life. A tableaux of 40 individual photos is the mask/matrix for a reanimation.

The animated film burned white in Sugimoto's images using long exposure becomes a window/hole for cartoons screened in parallel at exactly the same point in the former film. Similar to a surveillance instance, the individual room views are comparable, observable and arranged next to each other, like live broadcast images from security cameras or live streams used online by large theaters. Everything takes place independently of one another in darkened rooms in initially unknown locations. What exactly happens in the cartoons is rather unimportant in detail, the pattern of the cartoons is similar anyway. The overlapping of the soundtracks continually leaves an uncomfortable atmosphere of stylized noises and sound effects.

While everything seems quite synchronized at first (the intros are similar, the introductory narrative structure is established, etc.), the soundtracks increasingly overlap until, after a short time, anarchic chaos reigns on the screens in the respective sequences. In a loop.

Sources:
Sugimoto, Hiroshi: Theaters, Movie Theaters, Abandoned Theaters, Drive-In Theaters 1977-2015.
Tom & Jerry - Complete DVD Collection. Discs 1-6. Selection of approx. 80-100 individual episodes, each approx. 7-9 minutes long.