Located inside a former film studio in Shanghai’s downtown Xujiahui, the Shangai Film Museum is the first in the city. The museum has been created by the Shanghai-based award-winning design and architecture agency COORDINATION ASIA under the Art Direction of the German-born architect Tilman Thürmer, the agency’s founder.
For most of the 20th century Shanghai was the cradle of the Chinese film industry and this museum stands as testament.
Whilst roaming the building’s four-stories, visitors are given the chance to become the protagonists of a film and actively participate in it by either dubbing classical films in a real sound studio, walking through a lifelike film set on Shanghai’s famous Nanjing Road or becoming a star on the ‘Carpet of Lights’, where virtual fans and photographers flash their camera’s trying to capture images of the ‘celebrity’ that has just passed by.
Thürmer chose light and shadow, black and white, as the main themes, with grays and metallic accents referring to the silver screen, the film equipment and the glittering awards.
“The opening of the new museum is the start of a longer development process,” Thürmer says. “The coming year will be about professionalizing operations, visitor services and management. To me, this museum can be considered a success when it stimulates a new generation to identify with Shanghai Film. I will be satisfied when I see young people leaving the museum inspired, thinking: ‘The Shanghai film industry, that’s what I want to dedicate my future to.’”
