The Playground Project Melbourne

Creativity, play, discovery and community connection are all things that can be in short supply in today’s busy and pressured urban environments. But a remarkable new exhibition aims to help us slow down, smile, and embrace the possibilities of allowing ourselves to experiment with play and imagination.

The art, science and history of play is the subject of The Playground Project Melbourne, which arrives at Incinerator Gallery this June. The travelling international exhibition has already enraptured the curious and the playful across Europe and the US, and now the Incinerator team, alongside guest curator Gabriela Burkhalter, has adapted it for a Melbourne audience.

The Playground Project Melbourne is an enlightening and entertaining history lesson, as well as a fun, interactive experience for kids and adults alike. The show delves into 150 years of playground design, ranging from a time (the 1880s) when playgrounds were simply a way to get children off the streets, to more recently, when the possibilities of design sophistication have met with a crisis in urban planning and shrinking spaces for play. This educational side of the exhibition features archival materials, videos, photos and texts examining case studies from Europe, America, Asia and Africa.

On a more practical level, there are three large-scale playground installations to be enjoyed. One of these is The Lozziwurm, originally designed in 1972 by Swiss artist Yvan Pestalozzi. Children can explore this winding, worm-like structure by climbing inside its hollow interior and going from there – the piece was designed to foster social as well as physical interaction. And, happily, The Lozziwurm will stay in place in Moonee Valley once the exhibition is over.

The curators have taken care to bring a “uniquely Australian iteration” of the exhibition – originally commissioned by Daniel Baumann of Swiss museum Kunsthalle Zurich – to Incinerator Gallery. It features works by Australian artists and designers such as Simon Terrill (in collaboration with UK-based design studio Assemble), Emily Floyd and Mary Featherston, while the exhibition design by Melbourne’s BoardGrove Architects takes full advantage of the gallery’s modernist indoor-outdoor spaces, and is meant to be actively explored. To mark this landmark show, Moonee Valley City Council has also commissioned a playable public sculpture by Trawoolway artist Edwina Green for permanent installation in the municipality once the exhibition concludes.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Moonee Valley City Council.