In 2023, the much-talked-about complex "Azabudai Hills" opened in Minato Ward, Tokyo. And on February 9, 2024, the "Mori Building Digital Art Museum: Epson teamLab Borderless" has also opened in this popular commercial facility! Introducing the "teamLab Borderless", a museum without a map where you can immerse yourself in about 50 art works, including world premiere works, while exploring the museum.
What are the features and attractions of teamLab Borderless, created by the art collective teamLab?
teamLab is an international art collective that started its activities in 2001. They have held art exhibitions in various parts of the world, including New York, London, Paris, Singapore, Silicon Valley, Beijing, Melbourne, and have also handled the teamLab Planets TOKYO DMM art facility in Toyosu, Tokyo.
"teamLab Borderless" is a large-scale permanent museum where you can enjoy a group of boundary-less art, with the concept of "wandering, exploring, and discovering in a world that continues without boundaries". Opened in Odaiba, Tokyo in 2018, teamLab Borderless attracted 2.3 million people in just one year of its opening, and then closed in 2022 for the relocation opening this time.
In the newly opened "Mori Building Digital Art Museum: Epson teamLab Borderless" (hereinafter, teamLab Borderless), more than 50 art works are exhibited in a vast facility of about 7,000 square meters. Each work moves from room to room, influencing and mixing with other works to change, so you can enjoy art that continues to change forever while exploring the museum like a maze. The content of the works has also been powered up from the works from the time of Odaiba, and you can also appreciate the new art "Bubble Universe", which is the world's first public release, making it a hot topic hotspot.
Experience teamLab Borderless at Azabudai Hills! Introducing a variety of fantastic art, including the world premiere
TeamLab Borderless, which opened in the Garden Plaza B B1F of Azabudai Hills in February, is directly connected to the No. 5 exit of Kamiyacho Station on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line. It's nice to be able to visit regardless of the season or weather. On the day of our on-site visit, it was unexpectedly a heavy snow day, but the author was able to arrive at the entrance of TeamLab Borderless without stepping outside from the nearest station.
The art experience begins right from the entrance of the facility. As you approach the entrance, you'll see the words "teamLab Borderless" on the ceiling! This work is such that when viewed through a camera at a designated position in the entrance space, the words float up in the space. Compare what was taken from a non-designated location and what floated up, and you'll see what we mean.
In the artwork "Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together – A Whole Year per Hour", which expresses the changing of the seasons, you can experience the cycle of birth, bloom, and withering of flowers that color the four seasons, such as cherry blossoms and sunflowers. This work allows multiple seasons to coexist and slowly change, so you can enjoy different seasonal flowers depending on the timing of your visit. They are truly once-in-a-lifetime works. By the way, when we visited for the first time, it was spring cherry blossoms, and when we visited later, it had changed to summer sunflowers.
There are no maps or designated routes inside teamLab Borderless, so visitors can wander around and view the artworks as they please. What's interesting is that there are hidden exhibition rooms scattered in secluded places. Just like exploring a maze, you can use all your senses to navigate the museum, forgetting about your daily life and immersing yourself in the art space.
"Bubble Universe: Physical Light, Bubbles of Light, Wobbling Light, and Environmental Light"
And this time, the particular highlight is the world's first unveiling of "Bubble Universe: Physical Light, Bubbles of Light, Wobbling Light, and Environmental Light". Upon entering the exhibition room, the space is filled with countless spheres, each containing a mix of different lights. As people approach the spheres, the color and intensity of the light change. Furthermore, the light propagates from one sphere to the nearest one, continuing in a chain. Inside the spheres, there are lights that continuously change color and lights that do not change at all. During our visit, we were able to enjoy various color changes.
Even a short stay in the exhibition room offers a rapidly changing array of colors, and the appeal is that you can take various glowing photos and selfies depending on your standing position and angle.
Also, 'Microcosmoses: Wobbling Light' represents the universe using spheres. Countless spheres of light run through the infinitely expanding space on rails. Each sphere moves in different directions and timings, and the way they shine while influencing each other is as if you are really observing stars moving freely in the universe!
Universe of Water Particles on a Rock where People Gather
Among the numerous works, one that symbolizes teamLab Borderless is the "Universe of Water Particles on a Rock where People Gather". Since it is located at a relay point inside the building, you will pass this work several times while exploring the building. In this work, water drawn in lines is dropped onto the three-dimensional "Incline" to represent a waterfall in digital form.
The water that flows out onto the floor from the waterfall changes its flow when a person stands on or touches the artwork. Also, if you stay in the same place for a while, the water gradually surrounds and flows around you. Unknowingly, the viewer themselves becomes a rock within the artwork. This work changes and mixes with other works around it, such as "Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together", and evolves into other works. Because you can appreciate a completely different work each time you visit, you will never get tired of it.
From works using light to waves and cute animals in the corridors! There's plenty to see inside teamLab Borderless
The "Light Sculpture - Flow" series by teamLab creates three-dimensional light sculptures as if the rays of light are alive in a space they call "asymmetric universe".
In this exhibition area, countless rays of light move in various directions to the rhythm of music, with the works changing one after another every 1-2 minutes.
The movement of the moving lights, which are like living creatures, and the vortex of light are irresistibly captivating. Since the movement of the light rays is quite fast, video shooting is a must if you want to post it on SNS.
One of the unique features of teamLab Borderless is the fun of the corridors that connect the works. The waves drawn with lines reminiscent of the rough waves that appear in "Fugaku Hyakkei", a masterpiece of Katsushika Hokusai, a Ukiyo-e painter from the Edo period, a procession of daimyo by cute animals such as humans, rabbits, and frogs, and "Animals Living with Flowers II" formed by seasonal flowers, even the corridors leading to the exhibition rooms have become works that can never be seen again, so let's proceed without letting your guard down!
In addition to the works introduced so far, there are exhibition rooms that can be called hidden rooms, and at "EN TEA HOUSE Genkatei", you can enjoy a drink where flowers and tea trees bloom when you pour tea and place it on the table, and the flowers scatter when you drink it up. While exploring the maze-like museum, let's fully enjoy this experiential "museum without a map" where you can immerse yourself in art both physically and mentally.
Make and Buy Japanese Souvenirs in Tokyo! Sketch Factory by teamLab Borderless
At the Sketch Ocean in teamLab Borderless, you can let the fish you've drawn swim in the sea as a work of art, or create products (can badges, towels, T-shirts, tote bags) with the fish you've drawn at the Sketch Factory, and take them home as souvenirs.
By the way, what the author drew is a "jellyfish that looks like a monster from Puyo Puyo". "Puyo Puyo" is a super popular puzzle game series developed by the Japanese game company Sega. This time, we tried to draw an image of the slime-like monster that is stacked in the puzzle game, so we would like you to search to see if it looks similar. After finishing the drawing, have the staff scan the picture of the fish and let it swim in the sea!
Just like real jellyfish, there are jellyfish that move sideways while changing their shape, like the monsters that appear in "Puyo Puyo". All the other fish swimming in the sea are also works of the visitors. As we watched, we gradually became attached to the fish we drew! By the way, if you read the QR code provided in Sketch Ocean, select and fill in the necessary information, and pay at the teamLab Sketch Factory, you can create T-shirts, tote bags, and can badges with your own drawings. By the way, this time, we tried making a tote bag. Our fish drawing becomes a teamLab merchandise! It's perfect for a souvenir of Tokyo sightseeing.
Also, within the factory, they sell original teamLab merchandise such as bags made from reused rice bags, so be sure to check them out!
Access to teamLab Borderless
The subway is convenient for getting to teamLab Borderless. The nearest station is Kamiyacho Station on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line, which is directly connected to Azabudai Hills inside. Be careful when purchasing tickets and accessing on the day as it is easy to confuse with another teamLab facility in Toyosu, Tokyo, "teamLab Planets TOKYO DMM".
Spot information
- Mori Building Digital Art Museum: Epson teamLab Borderless
- Address: Azabudai Hills Garden Plaza B B1 (1-2-4 Azabudai, Minato-ku, Tokyo)
- Access: Directly connected to Kamiyacho Station on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line, Exit 5
- Opening hours: 10:00 - 21:00 *Last admission is one hour before closing
- Closed: First and third Tuesdays
*Opening hours and closed days may change. Please check the official website. - Official website (language selection available): https://www.teamlab.art/e/borderless-azabudai/
- Ticket reservation: Official website and Klook
*Opening hours and closed days may change. Please check the official website.
※Purchasing or reserving the products introduced in the article may result in a portion of the sales being returned to FUN! JAPAN.
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