As visitors push the spheres of light, the spheres change color and emit a color-specific tone. On view at teamLab Planets, a body immersive museum in Toyosu, Tokyo. (teamLab, Expanding Three-dimensional Existence in Transforming Space - Flattening 3 Colors and 9 Blurred Colors / Photo: teamLab)
TOKYO-- September 04, 2023 -- teamLab Planets TOKYO DMM (“teamLab Planets”), the body-immersive museum by art collective teamLab in Toyosu, Tokyo, celebrated its fifth anniversary with the renewal of artwork spaces, making it an even more immersive experience.
In the six months from March to August 2023, the museum has received approximately one million visitors from 182 countries and regions outside of Japan. This makes up 70% of the museum’s total number of visitors (*1). It has also been reported that approximately 1 in 10 visitors to Japan from overseas are visiting teamLab Planets (*2).
NEWLY UNVEILED INSTALLATION: EPHEMERAL SOLIDIFIED LIGHT
Inside an immersive artwork that visitors experience by entering the water, countless masses of light float in the air, each one composed of multiple colors. The boundaries of each color are clearly separated as though they are solid. The seemingly solid color separation of the masses of light is not seen in the natural world, and is caused by extreme synchronization. Through self-organization over time, this synchronization phenomenon creates a large ordered structure.
RENEWAL OF ARTWORK SPACES
In The Infinite Crystal Universe, an artwork that creates a three-dimensional sculpture from a collection of light points, visitors can participate in the work using the teamLab app and create the artwork together with other people in the space. By throwing in a star of your choice from the app, a light sculpture is created in front of you, and the space of this work is created by a group of these light sculptures. With the renewal, five new light sculptures have been added to the installation.
An installation filled with spheres of light that change to ambiguous colors through people’s interactions, Expanding Three-dimensional Existence in Transforming Space, and several other artwork spaces have also been renewed, furthering the experience of physically immersing the entire body.
In addition, teamLab Planets, which was originally scheduled to close at the end of 2023, has been extended to the end of 2027 due to the popularity of the museum.
CONCEPT BEHIND TEAMLAB PLANETS
Together with Others, Immerse your Entire Body, Perceive with your Body, and Become One with the World
teamLab Planets is a museum where you walk through water, and a garden where you become one with the flowers. It comprises 4 large-scale artwork spaces and 2 gardens created by art collective teamLab.
People go barefoot and immerse their entire bodies in the vast artworks together with others. The artworks change under the presence of people, blurring the perception of boundaries between the self and the works. Other people also create change in the artworks, blurring the boundaries between themselves and the works, and creating a continuity between the self, the art, and others.
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*1. teamLab Planets Official Website, Ticket Purchasing Data (data obtained from March 1st - Aug 31st, 2023)
*2. “Amazing Nippon / Digital Art Museum in Tokyo Enchants Overseas Tourists - The Japan News” The Japan News by the Yomiuri Shimbun. August 5, 2023.