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A cinema is a space where people come together to experience film. Emerging in the modern era, this architectural space brings people together in the dark, where they gaze at a shared screen and briefly form a community. Yet cinemas, long a familiar part of our lives, seem to be gradually losing their place. As long standing single-screen theaters and even seemingly well-established multiplexes close their doors one after another, and countless films are now readily available to stream, the “crisis of the movie theater” appears to have become a reality.

At a time when cinemas are losing their dominance and their role and meaning are being called into question, what have these spaces meant to us, and what might they become? This exhibition begins with these questions. Through two perspectives—“On-screen,” which examines cinemas depicted within films, and “Off-screen,” which explores cinemas as spaces in the world beyond the screen—it traces the  history of cinema architecture amid changes in Korean society and film culture.

While the architectural forms of cinemas have evolved, the “black box,” a darkened space where people gather to watch a screen illuminated by light, remains their most fundamental spatial form. The exhibition offers an abstract interpretation of the spatial experience of the black box. Moving between its inside and outside, On-Screen, Off-Screen examines the architectural transformation of cinemas in Korea, which has unfolded rapidly over a relatively short period. To reflect on the meaning of cinemas is also to reconsider the possibilities of places where people can come together and share experiences.