For our second day in Tokyo, we headed out early to visit teamLab Borderless, an interactive art experience that was absolutely spectacular. Located in the Azabudai Hills area, the exhibit was about a half hour subway ride away from our hotel in Minato. We arrived a few minutes in advance of the 9am tickets we’d purchased online weeks earlier and were immediately ushered into the darkened studio space.
A few steps in and we were suddenly surrounded by colourful images of flowers, fluttering butterflies, and swimming schools of fish that moved along the walls and floor of the spaces seemingly at random. Animal shapes made up of colourful blooms walked along the walls from one room to the next. All accompanied by gentle atmospheric music and even scents that varied from room to room.
One space just had colourful images of fluttering butterfly shapes. A long hallway had black and white profile images of a frog parade, each animal with its arms up in the air, eyes and mouth open in awe, which marched along the wall until it turned a corner and entered a new room. We loved reaching out and touching their faces which made them turn to face us, as if to say, “This is so cool, right?”
We visited a massive room where blue-white streaks of light poured down a tall wall, onto an enormous boulder and then down to the floor, pooling around our feet if we stood still. Images of giant flowers slid slowly down the walls, along with kanji symbols that disappeared when we touched them.
Another room with mirrors on the walls, floor and ceiling, had long, straight, thin, lights hung evenly from the ceiling that went on and off so that we felt we were rushing horizontally through space, or vertically, depending on how the lights flashed. And, because of the mirrors, we had the sense of moving through infinity in all directions.
Another mirrored room had a floor that sloped down and was filled with hundreds of white disks that rested on thin stalks, with images of luminescent flowers projected onto the disks. Pathways through the luminous flowers were marked on the ground so we could meander our way, open mouthed, through the space, circle back, moving up or down however we wished.
Yet another room was filled with large cubes hung at different angles and heights that were projected with images of roses at first, but then switched to images of water flowing and splashing against the cubes’ walls.
Another room projected images of people in different ancient costumes onto mist emanating down from the ceiling. And another room cast images onto the walls and floor so fast it made us dizzy. All the while, each room played different music, had different scents, and made us feel like we’d entered the imagination of a different artist. Got a glimpse of a different message the artist wanted to convey. A different feeling they wanted to express.
I was blown away. I kept saying things like, “what on earth?”, every time I entered a new room. Each space was absolutely glorious and made me feel such joy. Even now, days later, I’m still smiling.
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