Art collective teamLab has announced the opening of teamLab Reconnect: Art with Rinkan Sauna Roppongi which will run for half a year starting this March in Roppngi, Tokyo.

Since 2019, teamLab has been combining saunas with digital art to create wholly new and unique sauna experiences never before seen.

teamLab Reconnect’s aim is not to offer a luxury and high-end venue for seeing artwork, but to put visitors into a luxurious state to experience the art. Through contrast bath therapy, where visitors are placed in a hot sauna followed by cold water and then relaxation, they can open their minds and senses to a variety of artworks and in essence become part of the art itself. teamLab hopes this will enable visitors to realise their own existence―their mind, body, and environment―and in turn ‘reconnect’ with the world and time.

Levitation
teamLab, 2021, Digital Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

teamLab Reconnect will welcome a variety of new artworks based on teamLab’s new art project ‘Supernature Phenomenon’ which captures different natural phenomena in nature.

Proliferating Immense Life – A Whole Year per Year
teamLab, 2020, Interactive Digital Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

This artwork captures the life cycle of flowers. It is not a pre-recorded image that is played back; it is created by a computer program that continuously renders the work in real time. The interaction between people and the installation causes continuous change in the artwork, meaning previous visual states can never be replicated, and will never reoccur.

Since opening their sauna in Mifuneyama Rakuen in Kyushu back in 2019, which won the SAUNACHELIN two years in a row in 2019 and 2020, teamLab has gone on to create new works of sauna art such as teamLab: A Forest Where Gods Live and teamLab Ruins and Heritage: Rinkan Spa & Tea Ceremony.

Art collective teamLab opened a shop at their Shanghai-based art museum teamLab Borderless Shanghai on Saturday (December 5). teamLab Borderless Shanghai opened its doors in Huangpu, Shanghai, in November 2019, displaying around 50 pieces of artwork by teamLab. The company’s Borderless project is a ‘world of artworks without boundaries, a museum without a map.’

The museum’s new shop sellings a variety of items, from stickers to postcards to the official teamLab Folding Rice Bag. More items are scheduled to be added to the stock in the future.

teamLab Folding Rice Bag

The eco bag can be folded up and stored when not in use. It’s a 30kg rice bag that was acquired directly from the farmer, originally used for storing rice before milling and would normally be discarded after use. It’s traditionally used to store and sell rice. Still present in the Japanese countryside today, these bags are made of strong, durable materials that protect the rice inside from moisture and damage. The bag is made of paper, and it can be folded up and stored in your pocket for use at any time.

23 facilities including shopping centres, hotels, parks, and more in Odaiba are participating in Illumination Island Odaiba 2020, a large-scale illumination event that opened on Friday and is set to run up to Christmas Day.

This year’s event is bigger than the last, with only 10 facilities having taken part in 2019. The main park in Odaiba will also be lit up for the first time this year. The event is taking place to express gratitude towards those facing hardship during the pandemic – to connect everyone via gorgeous lights for a brighter tomorrow.

*Please note that illumination dates and times differ for each facility

Participating Facilities (Excerpt)

DECKS Tokyo Beach

The third-floor seaside deck faces Odaiba Marine Park and offers a gorgeous view of Tokyo Bay. Winter illuminations will serve cosy vibes around the rest area and plants, and serves as the perfect site to gaze at the lit-up Rainbow Bridge against the backdrop of Tokyo’s nightscape.

Running: November 14, 2020 – February 14, 2021

DiverCity Tokyo Plaza

The Festival Hiroba’s staircase will be colourfully lit up from 16:00 every day until January 31, 2021. After that, it will be lit up from 17:00.

VenusFort

teamLab – “The Tree of Resonating Colors of Life”　©チームラボ

teamLab’s towering digital art installation The Tree of Resonating Colors of Life is running at Odaiba until February 7, 2021. The 8-meter tall three-dimensional tree is created from an accumulation of light spheres.

Palette Town Daikanransha

The Daikanransha Ferris wheel is a symbol of Odaiba and offers a panoramic view of famous sights around Tokyo up 115-meters in the sky.

Winter Illuminations: December 1, 2020 – December 25, 2020

Statue of Liberty

Odaiba’s Statue of Liberty will be lit up with rainbow colours, changing the atmosphere in the area completely.

Running: December 11, 2020 – December 25, 2020

ARTBAY HOUSE

Japanese artist Takahiro Matsuo is also getting in the the action with the prism art at his PRISM/GLOW exhibition.

Running: November 27, 2020 – December 25, 2020

Tokyo International Cruise Terminal Station

A 5-meter tall Christmas tree is decorating Tokyo International Cruise Terminal Station.

Running: November 27, 2020 – December 25, 2020 (Not running select days)

Japanese art collective teamLab opened its teamLab: Rinkan Spa & Tea Ceremony, Ruins and Remains series of artworks at Mifuneyama Rakuen in Kyushu as permanent exhibitions on November 10. The artworks can be enjoyed as part of a set which includes enjoying the exhibits as well as a soak in Mifuneyama Rakuen Hotel’s sauna and a complimentary cup of Japanese tea.

Rakan no Yu, a sauna located at Mifuneyama Rakuen Hotel, won the Saunachelin Grand Prix two years in a row in 2019 and 2020. The sauna and open-air baths enjoy natural water from Mt. Mifune and are surrounded by the vast nature of the local area.

A sauna and new art experience fusion

Sitting on the borderline of Mifuneyama Rakuen Park is the 3,000-year-old sacred Okusu tree of Takeo Shrine, which is Japan’s 7th largest. Also in the heart of the garden is another 300-year-old sacred tree. Knowing the significance of this, Japan’s forebears turned a portion of this forest into a garden, utilizing the trees of the natural forest. The border between the garden and the wild forest is ambiguous, and when wandering through the garden, before they know it, people will find themselves entering the woods and animal trails.

Visitors can get their hands on a combo ticket which includes access to teamLab’s exhibition as well as daytime entry to the sauna. These are limited to 40 people per day.

Below are some of the artworks that visitors can experience.

Megaliths in the Bath House Ruins
teamLab, 2019, Interactive Digital Installation

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

Butterflies Dancing in the Depths of the Underground Ruins, Transcending Space
teamLab, 2019, Digital Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

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

MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM: EPSON teamLab Borderless in Odaiba, Tokyo, is set to welcome a world of wonderful winter artworks this year.

teamLab Borderless is a group of artworks that form one borderless world. Artworks move out of rooms, communicate with other works, influence, and sometimes intermingle with each other with no boundaries.

Sketch Christmas

This December, teamLab invites children to create a Christmas world from their own pictures. When they draw a picture of Santa Claus on a piece of paper, he will appear in a town right in front of their eyes as if by magic.

Forest of Resonating Lamps

Throughout December and into January, the lamps at the art museum’s Forest of Resonating Lamps area will be changed to blue, inspired by the Blue Grotto sea cave in Italy. Going into January, they will turn red to be inspired by flames.

Proliferating Immense Life

The museum’s immense flower art piece Proliferating Immense Life – A Whole Year per Year will welcome numerous winter flowers over the next few months including Jack-in-the-pulpits in December, Chinese aster in January, and Asian bleeding-heart in February. When people touch the flowers they scatter, wither, and die, before being reborn. 100,000 flowers will scatter at once, creating a breathtaking display.

Memory of Topography

This artwork installation depicts a rural mountain landscape of varying elevations. For winter, it will depict wintertime scenery starting from December, from powdery snow to snow storms, kantsubaki midwinter camellias, plum blossoms, and more.

EN TEA HOUSE GENKA-TEI

Enter teamLab Borderless’s cafe where flowers bloom inside your cup. The tea house will make tea with a variety of winter flowers like chrysanthemums and cyclamens until December before switching to daffodils and plum blossoms from January to March.

Experience winter like never before at MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM: EPSON teamLab Borderless.

Japanese art collective teamLab began displaying their permanent public artwork Continuous Life and Death at the Now of Eternity II, Grand Central Terminal at the One Vanderbilt skyscraper in New York on September 14, 2020. The world of the artwork becomes brighter with the sunrise of Manhattan, and becomes darker as the sun sets. The flowers that bloom change throughout the period of one year.

Who is teamLab?

teamLab is an interdisciplinary art collective founded in 2001 in Tokyo, whose team includes several hundred specialists from artists to programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathmeticians, architects, and more.

teamLab aims to explore the relationship between the self and the world and new perceptions through art, and that’s exactly what this piece does. In the flow of time of reality flowers are born, bloom, then in the course of time they wither and die. The flowers are eternally repeating the process of life and death. This process is captured in real time in the digital art piece.

Continuous Life and Death at the Now of Eternity II, Grand Central Terminal can be seen at the newly-opened 67-floor One Vanderbilt.

One Vanderbilt

Continuous Life and Death at the Now of Eternity II, Grand Central Terminal teamLab, 2020, Digital Work, Endless

Warehouse TERRADA opened up the new art cafe ‘WHAT CAFE’ in Tennozu, Tokyo, on October 15, 2020.

Left: Overlap of paint (dot3) by Soichi Yamaguchi | Right: Ichijiteki ni Inu, Ichijiteki ni Hito, Ichijiteki ni E by Dan Isomura

WHAT CAFE will serve as a hub to support artists in Japan’s art industry by functioning as both a gallery and cafe in a 800㎡ space. The gallery will change out the artwork from time to time to allow for more artists to showcase their works to visitors throughout the year. There will be hundreds of pieces shown in an entire year.

Left: Peel off the paint “No.125” by Haruna Shinagawa | void #35 by KIKUCHI Ryo

Tokyo’s Tennozu area is looking to become a major stop for art in Japan and is currently home to various art facilities like the pigment lab PIGMENT TOKYO and Japan’s biggest gallery complex TERRADA ART COMPLEX.

If you’re interested in contemporary art in Japan, and are visiting Tokyo, then you won’t want to miss a stop to Tennozu. Be sure to stop by WHAT CAFE.

Tokuma Shoten Publishing released a new picture book entitled Studio Ghibli no Ironna Kurashi in Japan on October 9, 2020 which is centred on the everyday lives of the protagonists from 13 of Studio Ghibli’s animated feature films.

The book looks at where the characters of these films reside and what kinds of lives they live, whether it be in the Toxic Jungle of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, or Sophie taking up the role of the cleaning lady in Howl’s Moving Castle, or Sosuke and Lisa who live upon the cliff in Ponyo.

Life in the castle in Howl’s Moving Castle　©2004 Studio Ghibli・NDDMT

Who’s who in the family? What kind of house do they live in? What job do they work? These are the questions that the book will answer as it delves deep into the livelihoods of the globally-beloved characters conceived by the incredible minds of Studio Ghibli.

The town of Koriko in Kiki’s Delivery Service　©1989 Eiko Kadono・Studio Ghibli・N

Arrietty’s house in The Secret World of Arrietty　©2010 Studio Ghibli・NDHDMTW

Noboru Yoshida (Art Supervisor for The Secret World of Arrietty)

The house that Satsuki and Mei move to in My Neighbor Totoro, the dwelling of Totoro, the wartime life of Seita and Setsuko living in Kobe in Grave of the Fireflies, the town where Kiki begins her life living alone at the age of 13, and so on.

The book is a must-have in the collection of any fans of Studio Ghibli, and is sure to make you want to step into those magical worlds once again.

The Asahi Shimbun and Nippon TV are set to host an exhibition centred on Mickey Mouse at the MORI ARTS CENTER GALLERY in Roppongi, Tokyo, from October 30, 2020 to January 11, 2021, in celebration of 90 years since Mickey Mouse’s screen debut. The exhibition will showcase works shown at the Mickey: The True Original Exhibition held in New York in 2018-2019.

Before the exhibition opens, five participating Japanese artists have each revealed their never-before-seen artworks which will be on display.

The Tokyo exhibition will be a travel back through time, looking at Mickey Mouse from the past to the present. It will be split into three zones: “The Origin,” “The True Original,” and “Beyond.” The five artists showcasing their work early will be featured in the “Beyond” zone and include Tomoko Oshima, Kosuke Kawamura, Nana Soeda, Calligrapher MAMI, and WAKU. Below are their featured pieces along with their comments.

Tomoko Oshima | Comment

“What’s fascinating about Mickey Mouse is, for reasons I can’t begin to work out, how he became a part of each person’s life. I was raised in a household that banned cartoon characters, so it always felt like something unobtainable. Mickey Mouse is like a hero to all of us. He’s dazzling and radiant, a kind of being I can’t look directly in the face of. When working on my Mickey Mouse art [for the exhibition], my concept was to create a Mickey that’s special only to me, so I challenged myself to turning that Mickey Mouse that everyone feels happy looking at and loves into my usual art style.”

Oheya (Bedroom), Tomoko Oshima

Kosuke Kawamura | Comment

“What I find fascinating about Mickey Mouse is that no matter how old I get, he always transports me away from the real world to a world of dreams. He’s an idol of mine. I even have my own collection of merchandise I’ve been collecting over the years. For the exhibition, I needed to creating something for the Beyond [zone], so I tried shaping Mickey Mouse from how I see him in my head. I’ve always made sure to balance my artwork in such a way that it can be seen in two ways. When you stand close, you can see the detailed composition, but when you step away, it looks different. This time around I gave myself a little challenge and made the silhouette of his face and hands using flowers. If you get close to it you’ll see that it’s made up of lots of flowers, but stand from afar and you’ll be able to see the facial expressions and his pointing figure. I’d like people to give both a go, so when you’ve looked at it up close then take a step back.”

Untitled, Kosuke Kawamura

Nana Soeda | Comment

“I feel Mickey Mouse’s appeal from his long history and how he has changed overtime, so I tried to express these aspects in the piece I made. The theme for it is centred on Mickey Mouse in the future, so when I was thinking about what he might look like in the future, I looked to past [designs] and tried fixing them up. So in my piece there’s a trace of looking back at past Mickey Mouse while giving him an update. Creating those ‘futures’ made me feel like I was walking through my own past and processes. You can’t know exactly what’s to come in the future even for someone as internationally popular as Mickey Mouse. But by learning from past memories and mistakes, you can draw on those to create a future, don’t you think? That’s something I wanted to convey in this piece, and I did so by creating something that’s close to the Mickey Mouse of the past with both 2D and 3D surfaces. The Mickey Mouse I drew is the one of ages past that looks completely different to his appearance today. But those look at it might feel something newer about it than older. That, or they might feel uncomfortable seeing him in a way they’re not used to. I want people to take their time looking at both and feeling whatever they feel when they do.”

LOVE, Nana Soeda

Calligrapher MAMI | Comment

“I’ve captured Mickey Mouse’s silhouette as its own kanji by using calligraphy. His appearance is iconic worldwide, and by making him recognisable through this common language, I’ve tried to create a new kanji, effectively breaking the language barrier of calligraphy, something which is difficult in itself to overcome for people. Another thing with calligraphy is that you can write the same piece hundreds of times which means it can be fine tuned over and over. I believe that overlaps with Mickey Mouse’s design as he has too has evolved for a hundred years. But by no means have his designs he just spring out of existence immediately. He has undergone trial and error through the times, and always shines bright. It’s because of everyone who will see my piece as this exhibition that I’ve been able to create something I can feel from the heart.”

ZEN Mickey, Calligrapher MAMI

WAKU | Comment

“I think the appeal of Mickey Mouse lies in the fact that people around the world all remember him from their childhoods. We form memories during our childhoods, and ever I’ve been able to recognise those memories inside of me, Mickey Mouse was something that was always close to me. When I see three circles together, Mickey Mouse’s face comes into my mind. He might be the first internationally recognisable symbol. I felt that the affinity between symbolism and neon signs is very high. So for my piece, I incorporated the techniques used for traditional Japanese neon signboards, something which I see less of these days. I took that and created the three Mickey Mouse circles using light.”

Untitled (Still Being Worked On), WAKU

The interdisciplinary art collective teamLab has added new elements to its Floating in the Falling Universe of Flowers and The Infinite Crystal Universe exhibits at teamLab Planets Tokyo in Toyosu, Tokyo.

Floating in the Falling Universe of Flowers
teamLab, 2016-2018, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Floating in the Falling Universe of Flowers showcases a seasonal year of flowers blooming and changing with time and how life spreads out into the universe. Enter a vast, immersive world where over 10 million flowers bloom.

The Infinite Crystal Universe
teamLab, 2018, Interactive Installation of Light Sculpture, LED, Endless, Sound: teamLab

The light sculpture of The Infinite Crystal Universe extends infinitely in all directions. People use their smartphones to select elements to throw The Infinite Crystal Universe. These elements are reborn in three dimensions, creating the artwork. 26 light sculptures have been made for the exhibit.

A survey was carried out with 522 guests who visited teamLab Planets Tokyo between August 31, 2020 and September 13, 2020 in relation to the safety measures put in place at the site against COVID-19. The results showed that 94% of people answered that they felt safe during their time there.

Interdisciplinary art collective teamLab is joining Light and Space artist James Turrell and British artist and stage designer Es Devlin and the opening exhibition of Superblue Miami, a new art centre in Miami, Florida, beginning on December 22, 2020.

Superblue Miami is set to open as the first experimental art centre by Superblue, a new company that looks into experimental art. Superblue will kick off its launch with Every Wall is a Door where large-scale installation art created by teamLab, James Turrell, and Es Devlin will be showcased through to 2022.

teamLab: Between Life and Non-Life

teamLab will showcase a selection of installations themed on the concept of “Between Life and Non-Life” which looks at human and nature and the ambiguity between life and non-life.

Transcending Boundaries / Universe of Water Particles, Transcending Boundaries
teamLab, 2017, Interactive Digital Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Transcending Boundaries, A Whole Year per Hour / Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together – Transcending Boundaries, A Whole Year per Hour
teamLab, 2017, Interactive Digital Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

“teamLab is an interdisciplinary art collective founded in 2001 in Tokyo, whose team includes several hundred specialists. At the heart of their practice lies the belief that digital art can bring people together through shared experiences. Their immersive, colourful installations fuse art and science to encourage meaningful interactions with both the work and other people. As we move around the space, our very actions—along with those of other participants—provoke flowers to bloom, waterfalls to change the course of their flow, and butterflies to twirl in the air. We are reminded that there is strength in the collective and are invited to reconnect with nature and marvel at its beauty.”
ーSuperblue

ART AQUARIUM MUSEUM officially opened permanently in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, on August 28, 2020. Before that, it was simply an exhibition that was held around Tokyo which brought together over 10 million visitors throughout its run, exhibiting goldfish in a variety of breathtaking ways.

We visited ART AQUARIUM MUSEUM together with Japanese model Yuna Yabe to take a deeper dive into what lies within those doors.

ART AQUARIUM MUSEUM can be found in Nihonbashi, an area of which served as one of many places where ART AQUARIUM previously held its exhibitions. Nihonbashi is steeped in tradition and is actually the place where Japan’s goldfish culture spawned from during the Edo Period.

ART AQUARIUM was conceived and is managed by Hidetomo Kimura, an author and general producer. It’s a collaboration between art, design, and entertainment, all fused into an aquarium to create a completely unique experience. The museum has taken what was once a pop-up exhibition and expanded it many-fold, housing close around 30,000 goldfish.

The aquarium is divided into different areas each with its own unique theme that plunges visitors into a multitude of fantastical worlds. One of the must-sees when visiting ART AQUARIUM MUSEUM is the masterful Oiran works—giant goldfish bowls as pictured above—which are inspired by the red light district of the Edo Period.

Perhaps the most striking and gorgeous part of the Edo Period was Hanamachi, the districts where geisha worked. The high-ranking courtesans, known as Oiran, engaged in what was known as the Oiran Dochu, or procession of the courtesans, and this too has been captured at the museum in the designs of the beautiful fish tanks in this area.

Another unmissable part when visiting the aquarium are the Goldfish Shrines, towering fish tanks lined up like a column of water trees which make for an incredible viewing experience.

The lighting and music is ever-changing, and so transports visitors into a completely different realm every time. It can be one way one moment, and in the next instant it changes entirely.

From the second floor you can overlook the fish shrines with dynamic 3D visuals in the background. These visuals change depending on the season, so you’ll be in for a treat however many times you visit.

There are countless works of goldfish art scattered throughout the aquarium—too many to count, so your eyes will never grow tired.

Suigian Lounge – Old Pine Tree Area

ART AQUARMIUM MUSEUM even has its own dining lounge where guests can enjoy a meal while gazing at a painting of old pine trees, a cultural property of the Edo Period said to have been painted by those of the Kano school of Japanese painting. Traditional performances are also carried out on the stage for diners.

These drinks are ¥1,200 each (before tax)

Every five days, a new line-up of cocktails is served at Suigian Lounge. Japan used to be divided into 24 sekki rather than the now-used four seasons of springs, summer, autumn, and winter. These were further divided into 72 Kō, which are five days apart each. That’s where the lounge gets its idea for changing its cocktails every five days. So you’re sure to find an interesting flavour on every visit.

Kagyo Ryoran – Joy Area 

Kagyo Ryoran is a separate cafe lounge at the aquarium where they serve authentic Japanese sweets in collaboration with famous confectionery shops.

From Left Clockwise: Goldfish Sarasa ¥750 / Palet D’or Cacao Soda ¥900 / Echire Butter & Cream Castella ¥800 / lohasbeans coffee Matcha Tiramisu ¥850 / Goldfish Jelly ¥750 (All Before Tax)

The cafe serves up range of tasty Japanese desserts, from traditional ones to others inspired by goldfish and some made in collaboration with other shops.

Large Plush Toys: ¥3,200 Each (Before Tax)

The aquarium event sells its own souvenirs, such as goldfish plushies in various sizes, original confections, collaborative products, and more.

“Everything was magical—the goldfish, the sounds, the lights, the atmosphere!” explains Yuna. “They have a lot of different varieties of goldfish, and the fish tanks come in all shapes and sizes, which makes for plenty of Instagram-worthy moments. And since it’s inspired by Edo culture, it has a Japanese vibe to it too. The fish are always swimming around, so no two moments are ever the same, meaning you’re offered something fresh every time you visit.”

If you’re visiting Tokyo, be sure to pay a visit to ART AQUARIUM MUSEUM.