Art collective behind some of the world’s most popular museums unveils new project

“Ultra-technologist” art collective teamLab, whose immersive installations attract millions of visitors a year, has opened an ambitious new museum in Tokyo.

When art collective teamLab opened its flagship Tokyo venue, teamLab Borderless, in 2018, the group wanted it to fundamentally change the way we perceive and think about modern art. Whether it achieved this ambition is subjective, but it’s hard to argue with Borderless’ commercial success before it closed in 2022 to make way for a major redevelopment project. In its first year, the venue welcomed 2.3 million visitors, making it the world’s most-visited museum dedicated to a single artist, group or collective at the time. The group’s second Tokyo space, teamLab Planets, is no slouch either, with Google naming it the world’s fifth most searched-for museum in 2023. The collective of self-described “ultra-technologists,” which includes artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, botanists, mathematicians and architects, has also exhibited its works to great acclaim in cities including Beijing, Melbourne, New York, London, Singapore and Taipei. So, it’s perhaps no surprise that a significant amount of hype surrounds the grand return of Borderless, which reopens this week in an upmarket new high-rise in Tokyo’s Azabudai district. Visitors can expect the familiar trappings of projection graphics, dynamic light shows and interconnected artworks that react to each other and change in accordance with the position and behavior of the viewer. “Immersion” and “digital” are two words commonly used to describe teamLab’s exhibitions. But the two collective members who showed CNN around their new space ahead of its opening on Friday hardly ever reference these aspects of their work. Instead, talk turns to themes of the continuity and nature of time, the shortcomings of fixed-point perspectives and the boundary between artworks and the physical world. Digital technology is simply a tool for expression, they say — and immersion is a by-product of the artistic output. Takashi Kudo, teamLab’s communications director, epitomizes the group’s philosophical approach. During CNN’s tour, he sat monk-like in a hall of mirrors amid glittering head-sized lights, as though a cosmic infinity were stretching out before him.