TeamLab Opens in Abu Dhabi

TeamLab makes their mark on the UAE

The art world's favourite immersive experience collective - TeamLab - has just set up a site in Abu Dhabi. TeamLab Phenomena opened in the Saadiyat Cultural District on April 18. The fully immersive environment features constantly transforming art experiences unique to the UAE.

What is so special about the artworks at TeamLab Phenomena, is that they do not exist independently, but are created by their environment. This means that the viewer themselves becomes immersed in the artwork, as they respond to their every move contributing to the ever evolving space. The Tokyo-based group of artists have designed the Abu Dhabi experience to expand consciousness and prompt the viewer to change their perspective of the world around us. None of the artworks are fixed installations, they have been designed to respond to shifting experiences that TeamLab calls “phenomena”. These phenomena react to changes in light, air and temperature, meaning that as a viewer moves through the installation, they also shift and activate it too.

Even the floor is reported to be sculpted in multiple dimensions, encouraging viewers to interact with their entire bodies. The space itself features changing light, scents and sounds, making the whole art viewing process an unforgettable experience. Others have said that the artworks have been made with “wind, water, and light.” Bringing a touch of environmental awareness during a time when the world is all becoming more conscious of being green.

The new purpose-built space is 17,000 square metres of cutting-edge installations that move and evolve organically as if they were real organisms. What makes them even more organic, is that the installation changes with every visit, pushing the boundaries of where art and technology intersect. The Abu Dhabi space is TeamLab’s largest museum yet, which was created in collaboration with Abu-Dhabi based MZ Architects. In fact, the building was also designed to be organic in form, being conceived as an extension of the installations that lie within its walls.

TeamLab was founded in 1998 by students Toshiyuki Inoko and Shunsuke Aoki while studying at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Tokyo. While they have been operating since then, their career really started to kick off in the 2010s after exhibiting at the Singapore Biennale in 2011 and subsequently working with PACE Gallery in 2014.

“TeamLab has been exploring a way to create art that is continuous with the body and transforms itself through the presence of people”, said TeamLab’s Toshiyuki Inoko during the press view, “… even when people enter the artworks with their entire body, the work continues to exist. Even if it is broken apart, it repairs itself.” He went on to explain that the concepts behind these environmental works were born 10 years ago, and that they are still being redefined to this day. “Instead of filling a museum with tangible objects, we have created unique environments”, he added, “The phenomena from these environments are what create the artworks.” There are artworks made from soap and foam, floors that literally rise and fall, and lined with mirrored walls. These accompany projections that respond to the viewer’s presence through sensor technology

TeamLab Phenomena allows the viewer to step into a world that ignites all the senses, with ever-evolving immersive installations that switch up our perception of our surroundings. A stone’s throw away from the Louvre, and next door to where the Guggenheim is set to open next year, it is just one of the art space’s contributing to Abu Dhabi’s status as an art world superhub.