When Sean Evans first approached Wonder Works about the project that would become Radiohead’s Motion Picture House KID A MNESIA, the brief was deceptively simple: create an art gallery and screening room worthy of a film that had been waiting years for its moment. What followed was a three-year journey in close collaboration with creative director Sean Evans and producer Matthew Davis culminating in one of the most ambitious immersive installations ever built for a music festival: a purpose-built underground bunker beneath the Empire Polo Fields at Coachella 2026.
The film at the heart of the experience – assembled from artwork by Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood during the making of Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001) – had been produced during COVID lockdown and was always intended for a live audience. Wonder Works was brought in to realise that vision at scale: a 17,000 square foot, 38-foot-high permanent underground venue, designed from scratch, that would serve as both cinema and gallery. According to Yorke, the narrative follows “a monster trapped in a derelict museum of the lost and forgotten” – and every spatial decision was made to service that world.
The central screening room places the audience inside the visual language of the albums themselves. Four large LED screens are angled inward, referencing the elongated pyramid imagery from the Kid A and Amnesiac artwork, creating the sensation of being enclosed within that geometry. All four screens display the same content simultaneously, and the audio – specifically remixed by Nigel Godrich for a 6-point surround presentation – fills the space from every angle.
Surrounding the screening room, gallery spaces feature original Yorke and Donwood drawings, paintings, and collages – some reproduced as large printed canvases, others applied directly to the bunker walls as billboard prints, deliberately distressed and raw. Ambient sound drifts through the galleries, and a mezzanine level at entry height gives visitors a view down into the space before they descend.
The engineering challenges were considerable. The site’s loose desert sand made conventional pile foundations impossible. Instead Kyle Morris of Mor Engineers developed a concrete retaining wall structure – requiring the entire footprint to be excavated before the concrete and steel frame could be built, then backfilled once complete. The roof was formed from large steel trusses with 12″ x 12″ SHS chords spanning the full width of the bunker, engineered to carry not only the suspended AV equipment but the dead load of compacted sand, a turfed roof, and up to 1,000 festival-goers standing above. Construction commenced in November 2025 and finished just in time for opening weekend, with the bunker now remaining as a permanent fixture on the Coachella site. Wonder Works’ Co-Director Jeremy Lloyd commented:
“This project was about creating a complete world, not just a venue. Every decision – the angle of the screens, the texture of the artwork, the way people move through the space – was in service of the film and the atmosphere Radiohead wanted to create. Building that underground, at festival scale, in six months, was genuinely one of the most challenging and rewarding things we’ve done.”
Coachella 2026 served as the launch for KID A MNESIA, which will go on to tour North America across four cities: Brooklyn, Chicago, Mexico City, and San Francisco. For the touring iteration, Wonder Works adapted the original bunker concept into a flexible, above-ground format, carefully reconfiguring the spatial design to suit each venue while preserving the immersive intent and visual language of the Coachella installation.
CREDITS:
Radiohead Motion Picturehouse: Client – Craig Newman / Chloe Kleinman at ATC Management, Executive Producers – Matthew Davis / Natalie Stone, Creative Director – Sean Evans, Design & Production Management – Wonder Works, Structural Engineering – Rasti Bartek, Cundall, Technical Director – Nick Evans, Lighting Design – Pryderi Baskerville, Video Director – Ellie Clement, Audio System Designer – Josh Lloyd / Leaf Troup
Coachella Construction Team: Project Manager – Eduardo Manllina, Goldenvoice, Structural Engineering – Kyle Morris, Mor Engineers, Construction – Tom Rice, Rice Construction, Local production – Jonathan Baden / Sam Rogers, AEG Presents
