Opens with contributions by Emily Floyd and Mary Featherston AM, Simon Terrill and Assemble, Edwina Green and BoardGrove Architects
June 28–October 12, 2025
Melbourne/Naarm, Victoria 3040
Australia
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11am–4pm
T +61 3 9243 1750
incinerator@mvcc.vic.gov.au
Opening on June 28, 2025 at Incinerator Gallery, The Playground Project Melbourne brings together renowned Australian and international artists and designers to respond to the project from a local perspective with four installations, commissioned by Moonee Valley City Council for Incinerator Gallery. This hit international travelling exhibition, curated by Gabriela Burkhalter and conceived by the Kunsthalle Zürich is making its debut in Australia, and is an interactive four-month takeover that explores how play influences our suburbs and shapes our imaginations.
The project showcases a unique chapter in art, design, urbanism, and activism from the late 19th to the early 21st centuries. Site-specific responses, unique to the Melbourne presentation, foster a sense of belonging, evoke local childhood memories, and encourage collaboration and shared experiences.
Artist Emily Floyd and designer Mary Featherston AM present a new iteration of the Round Table (2017-2025). This modular seating and play sculpture, inspired by Featherston’s 1977 cover design for Ripple, which was edited by Floyd’s mother, is a gathering space for community groups during the exhibition. The artist’s silkscreen prints, Ripple (2013-2014), are displayed alongside a permanent display of architect, Marion Mahony Griffin (1871-1961), co-designer of Canberra and the Incinerator building, and advocate of Rudolf Steiner’s play-based pedagogy and philosophy.
Australian artist, Simon Terrill and UK collective Assemble, revisit their collaboration, The Brutalist Playground (2015-2025). Originally commissioned by RIBA, it is an immersive installation inspired by Park Hill, Sheffield’s modernist social housing estate. Re-imagined for the Incinerator Gallery, its brutalist concrete architecture becomes soft, recycled confetti-coloured foam, transforming into a playful installation for exploration and play. Terrill’s two-channel projection incorporates archival footage of the original Incinerator, designed by world-renowned architects, Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. It draws connections between the building and the artist’s childhood in Canberra, which was also conceived by the designers.
An outdoor installation by BoardGrove Architects, The Ringtales Playground creates a world for imaginative play through sand, water and movement. The sandpit draws inspiration from the site’s modernist architects and the work of Aldo van Eyck, Amsterdam’s city planner, who championed the integration of play and public space. A long metal structure, based on Ulrich Wolf’s 1950s monkey bar design, advocates for ‘risky play’. The water table honours the nearby Maribyrnong River, mapping an aerial view of its waterways, and celebrates its Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung name, translating to “I can hear a ringtail possum”.
Trawlwoolway multidisciplinary artist Edwina Green’s First Nations Playable Public Art Commission responds to the themes of childhood, play, togetherness and renewal, while honouring the cultural and environmental significance of the Maribyrnong River to Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung First Peoples for over 40,000 years.
The Playground Project Melbourne takes place at Incinerator Gallery from June 28 to October 12. Kids 12 and under go free with an accompanying adult. Unlike any other exhibition, young visitors are invited to climb, crawl, fall and imagine their way through the whimsical playgrounds taking over the Incinerator Gallery’s indoor and outdoor spaces.
About The Playground Project
The Playground Project is a living archive and on-going travelling exhibition, informed by curated by Swiss urban designer and political scientist, Gabriela Burkhalter, about the theory, history and practice of playground design. Melbourne’s iteration of The Playground Project is commissioned by Moonee Valley City Council for Incinerator Gallery.
About Incinerator Gallery
Established in 2011, Incinerator Gallery is a platform for unique cultural experiences that connects society through art and design. It is a leading contemporary cultural space in Melbourne’s north-western suburbs, fostering design exploration, social interaction, discovery, knowledge sharing, learning and community development.
Curator: Gabriela Burkhalter / Exhibition Designer: BoardGrove Architects / Producer: Incinerator Gallery / Project Partner: Kunsthalle Zürich / Major Partner: Jellis Craig Foundation / Education Partner: Monash University (MADA) / Program partners: Agency Projects, Melbourne Design Week, RIBA, Community Recovery Program (Victorian State Government).
