The Vinyl Factory: Reverb opens at ACMI, Melbourne

The 2024 exhibition arrives at ACMI for its first staging outside London.

The Vinyl Factory: Reverb has opened at ACMI in Melbourne, marking the first international staging of the exhibition since its 2024 debut at 180 Studios in London. Co-presented by ACMI and RISING, Melbourne's festival of music, art and performance, the exhibition runs until August 31, 2026.

Originally commissioned and produced by 180 Studios and The Vinyl Factory, Reverb drew more than 50,000 visitors across a twice-extended run in London. The Melbourne staging arrives in a city with the world's highest concentration of record stores per capita, according to a 2025 report by the Victorian Music Development Office.

The exhibition brings together moving image, sound installation and interactive vinyl works from Stan Douglas, Jenn Nkiru, William Kentridge, Jeremy Deller, Virgil Abloh, Kahlil Joseph, Gabriel Moses, Cecilia Bengolea, Julianknxx and Carsten Nicolai. It draws on The Vinyl Factory Collection and commissions produced across twenty years of artistic collaboration, tracing a route through the Black roots of techno and house, Kingston's dancehall scene, the late-eighties Second Summer of Love and contemporary digital art.

Among the works on view are a six-hour film set inside a reconstruction of The Church, the New York studio where Miles Davis, Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan recorded; a fantasy rap battle staged between Cairo and London; a sculptural sound system in the form of a towering pink boombox; and a hundred-pressing display from The Vinyl Factory's archive, including records by Massive Attack, Thom Yorke, Fred again.., Grace Jones, Jeremy Deller, Pet Shop Boys and Daft Punk.

The exhibition also includes the Listening Room, an acoustically tuned space with speakers provided by Pitt & Giblin, holding a curated selection of records for daytime listening. After hours, the room hosts one-off sessions, talks and listening parties for ticketholders.

The opening programme during RISING has been curated by Yasmine Sharaf of Triple R's Cease + Desist, with sets from SkyLab DJs, Joe Brnadic, Tom Ellard (Severed Heads), Lovie, Rotational, Mark Ernestus, Adrian Sherwood, Nicole Skeltys and Saul Williams. Following the festival, the Listening Room continues under co-curation by ACMI, Sharaf and MESS Co-Founder and Artistic Director Robin Fox, with a second wave of artists including Warren Burt, David Chesworth, Andras and Naretha Williams.

Kahlil Joseph, whose work BLKNWS features in the exhibition, will also curate Selector: Kahlil Joseph at ACMI from June 4 to 23 2026, a film programme opening and closing with his rarely screened director's cut of Beyoncé's Lemonade, alongside work by Lizzie Borden, Saul Williams and Jim Jarmusch.

The Vinyl Factory: Reverb runs May 22 to August 31 2026 at ACMI, Fed Square. Buy tickets now.