Tech-driven art group to open solo exhibition

Following a successful Shanghai debut at the Tank Shanghai museum earlier this year, TeamLab, a group from Japan that combines digital technology with immersive art experiences, will open its own exhibition space in Shanghai.

TeamLab Borderless Shanghai, a new exhibition space on the west bank of the Huangpu River, will open to the public on Nov 5. The 6,600-square-meter space will showcase more than 50 projects by the group.

According to Wang Dong, general manager of Shanghai BES Chengtay Culture Technology, the investor and operator of TeamLab Borderless Shanghai, the new exhibition center will be a long-term project and aims to become a tourist destination that is as popular as Shanghai's Disneyland.

Wang added that TeamLab Borderless Shanghai is the first major project by Shanghai BES Chengtay.

"Our company is focused on the cooperation, investment and operation of top international intellectual property, and will explore a broad market for cultivating new Chinese art forms," he says.

Two exhibition rooms were opened to members of the media during a recent preview.

In the first room, the walls were adorned with images of flower blossoms and waterfalls which visitors could move or trigger a change in color by touch. Visitors were also able to initiate projections of rain, thunder and fireflies by touching the corresponding Chinese characters that fell from the ceiling.

In the other room, hundreds of lanterns hung at different heights occupied a dark space surrounded by mirrored walls. Whenever a visitor entered, his or her presence illuminated the lanterns which gradually changed in color and brightness.

According to Sato Mayo, a staff member at TeamLab, the preview accounted for no more than 10 percent of Teamlab Borderless Shanghai.

Dedicated to the exploration of the relationship between humans and the world, TeamLab started to create new media art with digital technology in 2001. The group has since held exhibitions worldwide in countries like Japan, Singapore, China and the United States. The group now consists of more than 600 artists and scientists who rely on actuarial science and programming to design visual fantasies and interactive experiences.

The group launched the first TeamLab Borderless exhibition in Odaiba, Tokyo on June 21, 2018. Occupying 10,000 square meters, Teamlab Borderless Tokyo received 230 million visitors from 160 countries and regions in its first year. Due to the success of the exhibition, the museum set a world record as the most popular single-artist destination, exceeding that of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, according to Toshiyuki Inoko, founder and chief representative of the group.

Inoko explained to China Daily that the concept of "Borderless" revolves around "a space comprising several artworks that seamlessly appear to flow into each other".

At TeamLab Borderless, the artworks jump out of the room in which they are located and move to another, where they mingle with other works already installed there. In Shanghai, "the birds you see in one exhibition hall will fly to another location, and your movements will trigger new interactions and new changes", explains Inoko.

"Borderless Shanghai is a mapless museum consisting of a group of borderless artworks."

Among the 50 pieces of artworks at the exhibition in Shanghai are new creations being shown for the first time, as well as the group's largest installation - Forest of Resonating Lamps.

"I hope visitors can immerse themselves in this borderless space and explore and create a new world with other people," says Inoko.

(China Daily Global 10/18/2019 page16)