With the increase in number of collaborations between contemporary digital art and traditional and historical Kyoto sites, teamLab is getting in on the action with its new digital art exhibition “Digitized Forest at the World Heritage Site of Shimogamo Shrine.”

We are joined by Instagrammer Macchan who recently attended the exhibition and who has provided photos for us.

Shimogamo Shrine is a shrine located between the Kamo River and Mount Kōya. It was registered it as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The shrine is associated good luck in marriage and welcomes sightseers from Japan and around the world. It can be reached by the 205 Bus from Kyoto Station and getting off at either Shimogamo Shrine (下鴨神社) or Tadasu Forest (糺ノ森前). It’s also about a 20-minute taxi ride from Kyoto Station.

This marks the third run of teamLab’s “Digitized Forest” exhibition at Shimogamo Shrine, and this year’s exhibition has been made even bigger. It is running until September 2, 2019.

Floating by the Rōmon Gate of the shrine are spheres of light which change colour and emit various musical tones unique to the colour when touched by a person. They also react to the other spheres around them, changing to the same colour and letting out the same tone, creating a chain reaction.

Egg-shaped orbs of light can be found dotted around the Tadasu Forest by the shrine which illuminate the trees. Like the light spheres, when the eggs are pushed they change colour and play a musical noise specific to that colour, the sound and tone spreading through the forest.

These objects of light can also be found at Mitarashi Pond where they float on the water. The orbs shine brightly and then fade slowly as if breathing. If pushed by people or blown by the wind they will change colour and emit sound.

The best part about teamLab’s art exhibitions is how visitors become part of the exhibition itself by interacting with the installations, offering a much more engaging experience than simply looking. Visit Shimogamo Shrine before the exhibition ends to see digital art meet a traditional Japanese shrine at night.

If you’re looking for more sightseeing recommendations for Kyoto then be sure to follow Macchan on Instagram!

Photos by まっちゃん

teamLab opened a permanent exhibition of their interactive art piece A blackboard where Little People Live on the 4th floor of MUJI Åhléns City in Stockholm, Sweden on August 16, 2019.

Inside this interactive digital art display lives a population of little people, and we can interact with their world by drawing lines and popping bubbles with our fingers. There is no goal in this game, you are simply encouraged to interact freely as you wish.

Experience the incredible world of digital art like you have never seen with teamLab.

teamLab Planets is a museum in Tokyo’s Toyosu area that will celebrate one year since opening on July 7. At this museum, visitors move through water and traverse its four vast exhibition spaces.

The museum is set to showcase its new digital art piece Drawing on the Water Surface Created by the Dance of Koi and People – Infinity for a limited time from July 7 to 21. Koi swim on the surface of the water that stretches to an infinite horizon. The koi fish are influenced by the movement of people in the water and turn into flowers when they collide.

As well as this, the museum will serve up new summertime foods at its restaurant The Bowl Steakhouse, where it will serve shaved ice, and its food stand Everything Is In Your Hand, where it will sell sandwich wraps.

Drawing on the Water Surface Created by the Dance of Koi and People – Infinity

teamLab, 2016-2018, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Three shaved ice desserts will be sold from July 20. In the picture from the left the flavours include strawberry, matcha adzuki and mango. Each is served with velvety fresh cream in each respective flavour.

Five wraps will be served from July 13. These include Mexican Chili Con Carne, Chicken Salad, Salmon & Cream Cheese, Avocado & Shrimp, and Vegan Salad.

Cool yourself down this summer by stepping into the waters of teamLab Planets and enjoying some refreshing seasonal food.

Spending a cool night overlooking the beautiful calm water at Odaiba and relaxing in the gorgeous pool sounds like an excellent way to spend summer nights in Tokyo. Grand Nikko Tokyo Daiba is launching their summer-limited plan called Tokyo Twilight Pool Plan 2019 to allow you to do just that. 

The Tokyo Twilight Pool Plan 2019 comes with a delicious food menu that serves a variety of luxurious, mouthwatering dishes that look just as luxurious as they taste. Some examples include; mini hotdogs with chicken and vegetable sauce aurore, barbeque sauce spare ribs, and much more. They even serve all-you-can-drink top quality Jacquart champagne, which is a global top class wine chosen by many airlines and hotels. 

This hotel offers a unique view of the night sky and night waters of Tokyo from an open terrace. Guests can gaze at the relaxing view whilst enjoying delicious food and luxurious champagne. The Tokyo Twilight Pool Plan offers the perfect getaway for friends and couples. 

teamLab are currently holding an exhibition entitled “The Life of Animals in Japanese Art” at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. until August 18.

The exhibition serves as the first devoted to artworks that represent animals―whether real, imaginary or religious. A selection of over 300 pieces are on display from artists back in the 5th century to today. The showcasing includes artirange from Sesson Shūkei, Itō Jakuchū, Soga Shōhaku, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, to Okamoto Tarō, Kusama Yayoi, Issey Miyake, Nara Yoshitomo, and Murakami Takashi.

United, Fragmented, Repeated and Impermanent World / teamLab, 2013, Interactive Digital Work, Endless, 8 channels, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Itō Jakuchū was a Japanese painter of the early modern period who was active during Edo times in Kyoto. He is known for his unique painting method called masumega which sees his works built up of tens of thousands of squares which are all painted individually. One of these pieces is the above-pictured famous Birds and Animals in the Flower Garden.

The exhibition will feature a range of mediums including sculptures, paintings, textiles, ceramics, metalwork and more.

teamLab is a creative group of professionals and artists that creates collaborative digital art projects and exhibits them to the public. Visitors have the opportunity to fully immerse their bodies in the exhibition and become part of the art. Now, teamLab is heading to the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Ishikawa).

From Friday 9th August to Sunday 1st September, the exhibition Impermanent Flowers Floating in a Continuous Sea will take place in the museum. Tickets can be purchased from Seven Ticket (Seven-Eleven convenience stores) or from event’s official website.

Continuous Life and Death at the Now of Eternity, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together
teamLab, 2019, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Learn more: https://www.teamlab.art/w/continuous_life_and_death/

Reversible Rotation – Black in White
teamLab, 2018, Digital Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Learn more: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/w/reversible-blackinwhite/

The main exhibition features one continuous wave produced by one installation. The concept is; Black Waves: Lost, Immersed and Reborn. The movement of the patterns in the exhibition are influenced by the movements of the visitors. The exhibition aims to show people that the continuous cycle of life and death exists in a moment that lasts forever. You cannot control it, but you can learn to live alongside it. 

 Black in White is another immersive exhibition. Here, you stand in the exhibition space and watch Japanese sho (calligraphy) being drawn all around you in 3D. The Graffiti Flowers Bombing exhibition is where visitors can draw their own flowers which then grow and bloom on the walls and spread all over the exhibition space.

Graffiti Flowers Bombing
teamLab, 2018, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Learn more: https://www.teamlab.art/w/graffiti-flowers-bombing/

All visitors are invited to become one with the art together. As your body intwines with the art, the borders between people and the exhibition disappear, creating a new borderless relationship with the world.  This is a chance for anyone to experience the latest technology to their heart’s content.

MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM: EPSON teamLab Borderless is an art museum co-managed by MORI Building and teamLab which is home to a borderless world without any maps in sight. The museum is currently displaying its spring display until the end of May.

It has been announced that this summer, from July 13 to September 1, the museum will extend its weekday hours to weekend hours where it will stay open until 21:00. They will also begin selling a limited number of Night Passes which enables guests to enter the museum from 18:00 for a closer, more intimate interaction with the exhibitions.

If you’ll be in Japan this summer then take advantage of this opportunity to enter teamLab’s immersive borderless world of digital art.

Shiseido Forest Valley is an immersive new indoor forest in Jewel Changi Airport in Singapore. Together with this new area, Shiseido has is also collaborating with teamLab on their new art installation SENSE. By opening Shiseido Forest Valley in Jewel Changi Airport which is used by people across the globe, Shiseido will be able to increase their international presence.

Jewel is a mixed-development and expansion of Changi Airport which describes itself as a “gateway where the world meets Singapore, and Singapore meets the world.” This 1.46 million sq ft complex is built up of gardens, attractions, retail and more all of which integrates with nature and sits under a stunning steel and glass dome.

Shiseido Forest Valley bathes in natural sunlight and is surrounded by nature with plants at every turn and a giant waterfall in the centre. teamLab’s SENSE installation combines nature, beauty and art through a Japanese aesthetic. Relax and take a stroll through the forest and enjoy the sights, sounds and tranquillity.

teamLab has announced that it will hold an exhibition at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture, entitled teamLab: Impermanent Flowers Floating in a Continuous Sea from August 9 to September 1.

Black Waves: Lost, Immersed and Reborn　teamLab, 2019, Digital Installation, Continuous Loop, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi　

Full Details: https://www.teamlab.art/w/blackwaves_lost_immersed_and_reborn/

This enormous installation is made of a single continuous wave.

Continuous Life and Death at the Now of Eternity,  Cannot be Controlled but Live Together teamLab, 2019, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Full Details: https://www.teamlab.art/w/continuous_life_and_death/

This art piece is influenced by the movement of people. Rendered in real time, it creates unique visual states that will never be replicated.

Reversible Rotation – Black in White teamLab, 2018, Digital Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Full Details: https://www.teamlab.art/w/reversible-blackinwhite/

A display of “spatial calligraphy” where traditional Japanese sho, or calligraphy, is presented in a contemporary way inside a rotating abstract space.

Graffiti Flowers Bombing teamLab, 2018, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Full Details: https://www.teamlab.art/w/graffiti-flowers-bombing/

Attendees will draw flowers onto paper which will bloom onto the walls in colourful bunches.

Enjoy sharing the immersive world of teamLab’s boundary-transcending, transient and deep digital art together with the other people in the exhibition.

teamLab Planets TOKYO DMM.com, which is located in Toyosu, Tokyo, is a museum of creative art where you become part of the exhibition. There are a total of seven creative pieces; four of which have “Body Immersive” as their main concept. The seven pieces together make it the “Mizu ni hairu Museum” (A museum where you enter the water).

One attraction is called the “Infinity Drawing on the Water Surface Created by the Dance of Koi and People”. Here, visitors enter barefoot and are invited to walk amongst the projected images of koi fish. From 15th March to mid April, this attraction is going to be changed to cherry blossoms ー come enjoy this fantastical attraction! 

人と共に踊る鯉によって描かれる水面のドローイング　- Infinity
Drawing on the Water Surface Created by the Dance of Koi and People – Infinity
teamLab, 2016-2018, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

The koi fish that swim for eternity are affected by the visitors who walk through the water. The koi fish then affect other koi fish whilst swimming. When they bump into a person, they burst into cherry blossoms and then dissipate ー just how flowers bloom and die over the course of the seasons every year.

Enter the water and become part of the exhibition! This museum offers you a really fun experience so don’t miss out on this spring-limited attraction!

teamLab’s annual A Forest Where Gods Live exhibition is set to take place for the fifth year in a row from July until October 31 at Mifuneyama Rakuen Park in Saga Prefecture.

The exhibition is part of teamLab’s Digitized Nature project which is conscious of how nature has formed over a very long period of time, and that we can gain a sense of the continuity of nature by turning it into art through forms like rocks, caves and forests. This is the same at Mifuneyama Rakuen where these elements have formed over a long time which people across all generations have sought meaning in them.

Mifuneyama Rakuen Park opened in 1845 and spans an enormous 500,000 square meters. It is considered a National Treasure of Japan.

Standing at the borderline of the park is the grand and scared 3,000-year-old Okusu tree of Takeo Shrine. The park is also home to another 300 year old Okusu tree which sits in the heart of the forest. teamLab notes how the border between the garden and the wild forest is ambiguous and that before people know it, they have already entered the woods and animal trails.

teamLab will use the rocks, caves and forest to encourage contemplation of the meaning of “Continuous Life” through their digital art which while is non-material does not harm nature in any way.

List of Major Works

Drawing on the Water Surface Created by the Dance of Koi and Boats – Mifuneyama Rakuen Pond
teamLab, 2015, Interactive Digitized Nature, 13min 24sec, Sound: Hideaki Takahash

Life is Continuous Light – Azalea Valley
teamLab, 2017, Interactive Digitized Nature, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Ever Blossoming Life Rock
teamLab, 2017, Digitized Nature, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Universe of Water Particles on a Sacred Rock
teamLab, 2017, Digitized Nature

Rock Wall Spatial Calligraphy, Continuous Life – Five Hundred Arhats
teamLab, 2017, Digitized Nature, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Resonating Forest – Cherry Blossoms and Maple
teamLab, 2017, Interactive Digitized Nature, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Abstract and Concrete – Forest Entrance
teamLab, 2018, Interactive Digital Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Graffiti Nature – Living in the Ruins of a Bathhouse
teamLab, 2017, Interactive Digital Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Flowers Bloom in an Infinite Universe inside a Teacup
teamLab, 2016, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Forest and Spiral of Resonating Lamps in the Forest – One Stroke
teamLab, 2018, Interactive Installation, Murano Glass, LED, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

This is just a sample of the exhibitions set to arrive this year. teamLab has many new pieces in the works, so don’t miss out on the chance to experience this wonderful coming together of digital art and nature.

teamLab has announced that it will showcase a new art installation titled Universe of Water Particles in the Tank for the opening of the new art museum TANK Shanghai in Shanghai from March 23 to August 24 this year.

The giant digital art piece sees a waterfall cascading down the tank which people can interact with by standing under. Like a rock in water, the presence of a person causes the flow of the water to change direction.

Other installations will include Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together – Transcending Boundaries, A Whole Year per Hour and Black Waves: Lost, Immersed and Reborn.

TANK Shanghai is a 60,000 square meter complex established by Qiao Zhibing, a collector of modern art from around the world. It is to be a new landmark of Shanghai representing its art and culture. The site is built from the oil storage tanks of Longhua Airport into which it has incorporates galleries, restaurant, bookstores, a park, and an education center. It is a place for people, society, modern artwork, the city and nature to come together as one.

Qiao Zhibing’s collection includes pieces from Theaster Gates, Thomas Houseago, Sterling Ruby, Michaël Borremans, Damien Hirst, Wilhelm Sasnal, Danh Vō, teamLab, Zhang Enli, Liu Wei, Xu Zhen, Qiu Xiaofei, Fu-dong Yang, and Zeng Fanzhi.

As well as teamLab, Argentinian sculptor Adrián Villar Rojas will also showcase his work Sometimes you wonder, in an interconnected universe, who is dreaming who?.

TANK Shanghai will showcase a group exhibition of 13 Chinese artists called “Under Construction” as part of the opening program. The exhibition’s themes are “partial, experimental, and imperfect” and will include works from Zhang Xiaogang, Xu Zhen, Zeng Fanzhi and more.

Universe of Water Particles in the Tank, Transcending Boundaries
teamLab, 2019, Interactive Digital Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Full Details: https://www.teamlab.art/w/universe_of_water_particles_tank/

Black Waves: Lost, Immersed and Reborn
teamLab, 2019, Digital Installation, Continuous Loop, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Full Details: https://www.teamlab.art/w/blackwaves_lost_immersed_and_reborn/

Continuous Life and Death at the Now of Eternity II 
teamLab, 2019, Digital Work, 12 channels, Endless
Full Details: https://www.teamlab.art/w/life-death/

12:00 Jan 18 Shanghai 

17:06 Jan 18 Shanghai 

Impermanent Life, at the Confluence of Spacetime New Space and Time is Born
teamLab, 2018, Digital Work, 4 channels, Continuous Loop

Full Details: https://www.teamlab.art/pt/w/impermanent-life-space-and-time
YouTube: https://youtu.be/PdqzXVJxpRc

Enso
teamLab, 2017, Digital Work, 18min 30sec (loop)

Full Details: https://www.teamlab.art/w/enso/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/1sybaBx2cq4