In thrall to the silver screen, Hiroshi Sugimoto returns to theatres after over a decade

Teatro Comunale di Ferrara
Teatro Comunale di Ferrara, Ferrara, 2015, II Conformista, by Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery
(Image credit: TBC)

Is it possible to watch a whole film in a single frame? ‘Habitual self-interlocutor’ Hiroshi Sugimoto has been attempting to distill cinema into a snapshot since the 1970s in a series of photographic experiments called Theaters.

The Japanese photographer’s eccentric endeavour began in a movie theatre in New York’s East Village, where he set up his large-format camera with its shutter fixed at its widest aperture and directed at the screen. After a two-hour exposure, Sugimoto closed the shutter: he had indeed succeeded in capturing the whole movie in a single frame.

Sugimoto’s project continued through the 1980s and 90s, the artist traveling all over the US, to 1920s film theatres, to the more grandiose cinemas of the 1950s, insalubrious downtown dives and drive-ins. The project took the form of a historical and architectural document, as much as an exploration of our relationship with time-based media, exploring the environments for viewing films and how they might stimulates or simulate experience.

Installation view of ‘Le Notti Bianche’ at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

Installation view of ‘Le Notti Bianche’ at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

(Image credit: TBC)

In thrall to the silver screen as Sugimoto was, he abandoned the project for 12 years. Until three years ago, that is. Picking up his camera again, this time in Italy, Sugimoto shot theatres all over the country – a continuation of his previous investigation.

Twenty new works are now being presented at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, including the city’s own historic Teatro Carignano, designed by Benedetto Alfieri and first opened to the public in 1753.

In each of these new photographs, the illuminated screen in the centre casts an inexorable light, an ominous blank space for the audience to project their own minds onto. ‘I have always preferred the reflection of life to life itself,’ auteur François Truffaut once wrote. Sugimoto clearly shares the sentiment.

Villa Mazzacorrati Bologna, 2015, Le Notti Bianche, by Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2015.

Villa Mazzacorrati Bologna, 2015, Le Notti Bianche, by Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery

(Image credit: TBC)

Teatro Farnese, Parma, 2015, Salo, by Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery

Teatro Farnese, Parma, 2015, Salo, by Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery

(Image credit: TBC)

Installation view of ‘Le Notti Bianche’ at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

Installation view of ‘Le Notti Bianche’ at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

(Image credit: TBC)

Teatro Carignano, Turin, 2016, by Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2016. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery

Teatro Carignano, Turin, 2016, by Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2016. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery

(Image credit: TBC)

Teatro dei Rozzi, Siena 2014, Summer Time, by Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2014. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery

Teatro dei Rozzi, Siena 2014, Summer Time, by Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2014. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery

(Image credit: TBC)

Teatro Scientifico del Bibiena, Mantova, 2015, I Vitelloni, by Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery

Teatro Scientifico del Bibiena, Mantova, 2015, I Vitelloni, by Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery

(Image credit: TBC)

Installation view of ‘Le Notti Bianche’ at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

Installation view of ‘Le Notti Bianche’ at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

(Image credit: TBC)

INFORMATION

‘Le Notti Bianche’ is on view until 1 October. For more information, visit the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo website

ADDRESS

Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo
Via Modane, 16
10141 Turin

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Charlotte Jansen is a journalist and the author of two books on photography, Girl on Girl (2017) and Photography Now (2021). She is commissioning editor at Elephant magazine and has written on contemporary art and culture for The Guardian, the Financial Times, ELLE, the British Journal of Photography, Frieze and Artsy. Jansen is also presenter of Dior Talks podcast series, The Female Gaze.