Opening on Friday at the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows, Queens in the Empire Drive-In, an full scale movie theater made of junked cars and salvaged materials. Unlike Paris’ Cinema Paradiso drive-in that featured hundreds of Fiat 500s, Empire Drive-In has a much more theoretical aim: “The project invites audiences to participate in a series of questions about car culture, planned obsolescence, and the distinction between public and private space. You can also watch a movie on a really big screen.”
The films and programming reflect these aims, and include collaborations with Transportation Alternatives, Flux Factory, and Rooftop Films. There will be a forty foot screen made of salvaged wood and sound will be transmitted to each car using low-power radio. It’s meant to be explorative, so audience members are encouraged to climb in and out of cars, look for artifacts inside the cars, even climb on top.
Full schedule of events.
