Sponsored: It’s finally time…
One of Abu Dhabi’s and Saadiyat Cultural District’s biggest openings is finally here, with the groundbreaking launch of the revolutionary teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi by Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT) and Miral.
Set within the booming Saadiyat Cultural District, the unprecedented art megaproject spans 17,000 sq. metres and will house exhibits like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It comes to Abu Dhabi after being conceived by Tokyo-based art collective, teamLab.
Exhibits
Massless Suns and Dark Suns
This incredible exhibit features spheres of light and darkness, which will converge to challenge perceptions of reality. Radiant spheres of light appear as solid yet intangible entities, with these spheres of light existing only in the onlooker’s perception. Purple-blue spheres of darkness will also emerge, before an intense glow ignited – triggering a harmonious ripple effect across neighbouring spheres.
Levitation Void
Building upon the previous realm of light and darkness, this exhibit introduces an order of energy at the centre of its space, a void that is born and maintained by its environment. When pushed, it may move or fall to the ground, but as if by instinct, it slowly rises again, repairing itself and remaining in a state of levitation.
Living Crystallized Light
The artwork does not exist by itself; the distinctive phenomenon created by the unique environment is the existence of the artwork. Everyday substances like air, water, and light become phenomena through the unique environment, and these phenomena constitute the existence of the artwork.
Autonomous Abstraction
Each dot of light blinks and changes colour in cycles unique to each dot. When people touch them, the rhythm of the blinking hues change and are randomised, but the dots close to each other once again cause a spontaneous order phenomenon between them.
Wind Form
The flow is influenced by the shape of the space and the presence of people, and it continuously interacts with and transforms in relation to all other flows in the artwork space. The flow is a continuum of countless interacting particles, and lines are drawn by the trajectories of these particles.
Floating Lamps in Spontaneous Order
Each floating lamp on the water glows with its own rhythm. Over time, they mutually influence nearby lamps and tea in spontaneous order, starting a spontaneous order phenomenon, and the rhythms of their flickering become closer to each other. When visitors push the lamps, their rhythm changes.
Tea in Spontaneous Order – Dynamic Steady State Colour
When a cup of tea is made, Tea in Spontaneous Order glows and produces a tone with its own rhythm. The artwork is born when the tea is made, and disappears when the tea is drunk.
Continuous Trajectories in Flux and Form
Continuous trajectories fill up the space, becoming a three-dimensional form. The places where it is drawn are in constant flux, and the form of its existence transforms.
Circulating Universe of Water Particles
The flow is influenced by the shape of the space and the presence of people, and it continuously interacts with and transforms with all the other flows in the artwork space. The flow is considered as a continuum of countless interacting particles, and lines are drawn by the trajectories of these particles.
Flutter of Butterflies
Flutters of butterflies appear from the ground and the walls where people touch. Through the simple interactions among the butterflies, a part of the artwork continues to create spontaneous order even as the entire flutter moves in disorder.
Biocosmos
The movement of hundreds of thousands of birds is beautiful and mysterious, like a single, giant life form. Even if each individual element is separated in space and time, when there is order among them, the individual elements may be recognised as a single entity that transcends space and time.
Graffiti Nature and Beating Earth
Colour in a creature on the paper provided, and see the picture you have drawn come to life and move in front of you.
Sketch Factory
The creatures you draw in Graffiti Nature and Beating Earth will be made into an original product such as a badge, hand towel, T-shirt, tote bag or papercraft, to be taken home as a keepsake.
Cognitive Solidified Spark
“We do not perceive the world we see, we see the world we perceive.”
Floating Microcosms
This is a series from teamLabBall (2009) featuring soft and flexible sculptures that relate to people’s bodies, sculptures that change the relationship between people and the space through the influence of people’s behavior, and spatial sculptures with ambiguous boundaries.
Spontaneous Order in Chaos
The strokes of colour in this artwork do not have an overall focus; there is no guidance and no external influence. Through simple, localised interactions between colour strokes and people, spontaneous order continuously emerges on its own, even as everything moves toward disorder.
Morphing Continuum
Even if individual elements are separated in space and time, when a structural order appears among them, the elements transcend space and time and form a single entity. Despite significant changes in shape or size on the surface, or even if all of the elements are replaced, the single existence will be maintained. This spatiotemporal existence is part of the whole, it appears from the whole, and is returned to it. It is a living universe – a biocosmos.
Massless Amorphous Sculpture
The only material substances present in this space are ordinary soap, water, and air. The bubbles are soap bubbles. This floating, immense sculpture emerges from a sea of bubbles, transcending the very concept of mass.
Light Sculpture – Flow
“The existence of an ocean vortex is made up of the same water, both inside and outside. There is no material difference. Despite this, why do we feel a sense of existence in the vortices of the ocean?”
The Accumulation of Time
The water level in the space changes over time, altering the shape of the land as time progresses. Eventually, the land becomes covered by water, blurring the boundaries between people’s bodies and the artwork. One’s self, other people, and the artwork become continuous entities, exploring a continuous cognition between us and the world.
Waterfall of Light Particles
This artwork is a series based on a waterfall in the mountains of Shikoku, Waterfall of Light Particles – Deep in the Mountains of Shikoku (2016-2017). The shining particles cascade down, leaving a light trail afterimage that appears to draw lines in space. From the combination of these afterimage light traces, the waterfall of light is born.
Waves
This work is not a spatial illusion; the artwork space exists as it is in the space where people’s bodies are, and the space becomes enveloped by waves.
Absolute Front Torus
This torus always faces the front, whether observed from the side or from below. The torus that you’re looking at facing forward is simultaneously facing forward to another viewer standing elsewhere.
Obverse and Reverse
The circular, colourful portal appears as a colourless white light membrane, when viewed from the backside. When a person attempts to move behind it from any position, the world of colors recedes.
Light Vortex
“The existence of an ocean vortex is made up of the same water, both inside and outside. There is no material difference. Despite this, why do we feel a sense of existence in the vortices of the ocean?”
Megaliths in the Roots Garden
These megaliths appear in various locations around the world, their spacetime is interconnected. The roots of the trees growing in the surrounding area continue directly down to the bottom floor. The floor below is an environment where roots are able to grow even in the air.
teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat Cultural District, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, opens Friday, April 18, from Dhs150. teamlababudhabi.com
Media: supplied, Instagram
