Behold the Technicolor Playground That Is teamLab’s New Digital Art Museum

The artist collective has opened the new space in Tokyo.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

The pioneering interdisciplinary art collective teamLab has opened a digital art museum in Tokyo. Called the Mori Building Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless, the venue offers a rotating display of colorful moving imagery that fills an entire gallery and creates an interactive environment responsive to the movements of visitors.

“Digital art has been liberated from the constraints of material substance,” said teamLab founder Toshiyuki Inoko in an especially high-concept statement. “The feelings and thoughts that were incorporated into an artwork through a physical medium can now be directly transferred to people (visitors) through experience.”

teamLab works in the 107,000-square-foot venue include Forest of Lamps, in which a tree lights up each time a person enters the room, and a tea house serving green tea in cups that bloom with digital flowers.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Flowers Bloom in an Infinite Universe Inside a Teacup from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Despite teamLab’s milestone in launching a digital art museum, this new realm of art is very much in the experimental phase. Pace Gallery, which represents teamLab, is still figuring out how to price and sell the collective’s work. Small monitor-based works are one thing, but very few collectors have the space to display a room-encompassing digital art installation. Plus, building one of these high-tech immersive experiences can cost millions of dollars.

That’s why teamLab built the museum, where they can sell tickets to see the work, as if it were a movie or concert. (Pace is not involved in the project.)

There are 50 artworks on view, and while the museum is technically divided up into five zones, many of the works blend seamlessly into one another. teamLab prides itself on this lack of boundaries, which is aimed at creating a unique visitor experience.

See more photographs of the museum below.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

Art from the Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. Photo courtesy of teamLab.

See a video of the museum’s incredible digital art in action.

The Mori Building Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless is located in Palette Town, Odaiba, 1-3-8 Aomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo. It is open Monday–Thursday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m.–9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m. 11 a.m.–9 p.m., 10 a.m.–7 p.m. General admission is 3,200 yen ($28.45). 


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