Pink Floyd Exhibition Opens in London

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Photo via the V&A Facebook page

The first major international retrospective of Pink Floyd opened at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum on May 13, marking 50 years since the band released its first single.

The “Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains” is, according to an announcement from the V&A, “an immersive, multi-sensory and theatrical journey through Pink Floyd’s extraordinary world. A story of sound, design and performance,” the release continues, “the exhibition will chronicle the music, iconic visuals and staging of the band, from the underground psychedelic scene in 1960s London to the present day, illustrating their groundbreaking use of special effects, sonic experimentation, powerful imagery and social commentary.”

Read The Guardian‘s 5-star review of the exhibit.

The teacher, from The Wall. “Schoolboy, schoolboy. Did you hear what I said?”

The exhibition marks the first collaboration in decades of Pink Floyd’s surviving members. Tickets are on sale at a cost of £20-£24. The exhibition will run for 20 weeks.

In March, the museum released a teaser trailer. Watch it, with brief interviews from Roger Waters and Nick Mason, below.

Waters: “I hope this will be… having been down the rabbit hole… they will come out at the other end going ‘wow, this was cool’.”

When the pair appeared together at a press conference on February 16, it prompted speculation of a Pink Floyd reunion. Read our coverage here.

Pink Floyd band masks from 1979, part of the V&A exhibit

“The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains” celebrates the band’s work in composition, staging, design, film, music technology, graphic design and photography. It will feature more than 350 objects and artifacts including never-before-seen material, presented alongside works from the V&A’s collections of art, design, architecture and performance. Highlights will include set and construction pieces from some of Pink Floyd’s album covers and stage performances, including The Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall and The Division Bell, instruments, music technology, original designs, architectural drawings, handwritten lyrics and psychedelic prints and posters.

V&A director Martin Roth said: “The V&A is perfectly placed to exhibit the work of a band that is as recognisable for its unique visual imagery as for its music. Pink Floyd is an impressive and enduring British design story of creative success. Alongside creating extraordinary music, they have for over five decades been pioneers in uniting sound and vision, from their earliest 1960s performances with experimental light shows, through their spectacular stadium rock shows, to their consistently iconic album covers.”