Presented as part of the Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art, Moving Pictures examines how migrant faith communities across England adapt former cinemas into active places of worship. Shaped through ritual, spatial agency and everyday devotional practice, these sites operate as forms of living heritage that reframe British heritage as plural, embodied and continually evolving.
A residency at Nanaksar Gurdwara Gursikh Temple, housed within the former Redesdale Cinema, explores how Sikh devotional practice enacts living heritage through Paath and Shabad Kirtan and through the coordinated rhythms of the sangat (congregation). Filming is negotiated in situ: duration, scale and camera movement emerge through the temporal and spatial rhythms of prayer itself. A custom motorised filming and projection device records the Pooranmashi (full moon celebration) from above the congregation. This elevated perspective is collectively agreed and carefully choreographed through religious custom, trust and congregational consent.
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At the same time, the architecture of the former cinema remains active within the work, continuing to shape how worship is performed and experienced. In accordance with Sikh practice, the film avoids direct representation of the Guru, attending instead to the congregation, musicians, offerings and the spatial atmosphere of the site. Ethical considerations become embedded within the mechanics of the filming device itself, where the method of capture operates not as detached observation but as a negotiated expression of the site’s spiritual and social order.
The installation returns the filmed material back into the temple through the same device, preserving scale, duration and spatial relationships so that image, sound and architecture resonate together within the site from which they emerged. The public programme opened the temple to local residents and visitors, positioning congregation members as hosts, custodians and knowledge holders.
This work forms part of the wider research project Moving Pictures: Reusing Cinemas as Places of Worship in the Diaspora. Further project material can be found at Moving Pictures.
