Cine Art Palácio is an old movie theatre, the first of the “Cinelândia” (Cineland) that existed in São Paulo in the 1930s – built by the German film industry.
After being acquired by a family that dominated the film scene in São Paulo, in 1939, Art Palácio screened all of the movies launched by actor Mazzaropi and some say that he became a millionaire over it!
In the end of the 70s, the place turned into a hardcore porn exhibition place and you can imagine what happened in there – and this was up to 2009.
After that, it was closed for lack of urban tax payment, and then in 2013 the Secretary of Culture of S.P fostered Festival Screen, of which I participated as cultural producer – and it consisted of a movie montage that interacted with the physical space around the screening.
This inaugurated a series of other cultural occupations, of music and dance, for example – a process that’s been going on since the demonstrations of June 2013 in São Paulo -, in a movement of reclaiming abandoned urban spaces to the benefit of art, culture and collectiveness.