teamLab: Existence in an Infinite Continuity | teamLab

Name: teamLab: Existence in an Infinite Continuity
Start: 2023-07-22
End: 2024-01-21
Location: Himeji City Museum of Art

EXPOSITION PASSÉE

2023.07.22(Sat) - 2024.01.21(Sun)Himeji City Museum of Art, Hyogo

#teamLabHimeji

Second term on view from Oct 21. The artworks in this exhibition will differ between the first and second term.
Related Exhibition "teamLab: Existence in Perception - Engyoji Temple" On view until Dec 03

EXPOSITION PASSÉE

2023.07.22(Sat) - 2024.01.21(Sun)Himeji City Museum of Art, Hyogo

#teamLabHimeji

teamLab: Existence in an Infinite Continuity

teamLab aims to change humanity’s perception of the world through art. In this exhibition, viewers will immerse themselves in borderless Ultrasubjective Space, where the physical space of reality they stand in merges with the space of the artworks. Through this immersive experience, viewers will become physically aware that the world is built on interconnectedness and continuity. In recent years, teamLab has begun to explore further, creating artworks centered around the theme of “What is life?” In their work, they state: “Our existence is shaped by the interplay between the mind, the body, and the environment that is continuous with them.” Over two parts, this exhibition demonstrates how teamLab’s current position transcends the conventional boundaries of perceiving living organisms and inanimate entities, showcasing the collective’s progress on a large scale.

ー Himeji City Museum of Art

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#teamLabHimeji

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Second term: Oct 21, 2023 - Jan 21, 2024

Dissipative Figures – 1000 Birds, Light in Dark

The contours of life’s existence are not the surface boundary of the body, but something ambiguous that includes the environment that is continuous with it.
As long as people live, they dissipate energy and affect the environment, such as the flow of air.
In this artwork, the existence of the birds are depicted through the energy they dissipate into the world.

Being consists of the mind, the body, and the environment that is continuous with them.

Objects like stones and man-made creations so far have maintained a stable structure on their own. But life is different. Whereas a stone can continue to exist in a closed box, sealed off from the outside world, life would cease to exist.

Life is like a vortex created in the ocean. A vortex forms and exists in a flow of matter, and the boundaries of its existence are ambiguous.  

Although a vortex is steady, it is constantly moving and swelling like a powerful life-form. The vortex cannot maintain a stable structure on its own; rather, it is created and sustained by water that continuously flows inwards and outwards.

The same is true of life. It consumes external matter and energy as food and discharges it, sustaining its ordered structure as the energy dissipates. In other words, life does not exist by itself. It is the environment that is continuous with it that maintains the structure of life.

Life is a miraculous phenomenon that emerges from a flow in an open world. Like an ocean vortex, it is an existence with ambiguous boundaries in an infinite continuity.

To be alive is to be inseparable from the world, constantly dissipating energy into it.

Matter is Void - Fog

Anyone can download and own the authentic workDownload the Artwork
NFT owners can modify the words of the workModify the Words
Purchase on Pace Verso*From October 20, 2022 17:00 EST

Through the artwork, Matter is Void, teamLab explores the notion of ownership.

This is an NFT artwork. There is only one NFT of this work, but it does not make it exclusive. Anyone and any number of people can download and own the artwork itself. In other words, whether or not someone owns the NFT of the work, the downloaded artworks cannot be distinguished from each other and they are all authentic.
The artwork displays the words chosen by teamLab, “Matter is Void”. Only the NFT owner can modify these words, and those same words will be reflected in all of the artworks downloaded by people around the world.
Depending on the words chosen by the owner of the NFT, the value of the artwork will change. If the words rewritten by the owner of the NFT possess value, more people may choose to own the artwork; and if the words do not possess value, people may no longer choose to display the work. There may be great value in rewriting the words of an artwork that many people look at, and conversely little value in rewriting the words of an artwork that is not displayed anywhere. Depending on the words chosen by the owner of the NFT, the value of the NFT will also likely change.
Once the original words are modified, even if the owner of the NFT decides to change them back to “Matter is Void”, the words will appear differently from the original; the initial “Matter is Void”, once modified, will not be able to be seen in its original state ever again.

The letters of the words in this artwork continuously revolve and rotate. Depending on the angle we may be able to recognize the letters as they continue to rotate, and there will be moments when we can recognize the meaning of the letters as a whole, but once again, they will become indiscernible and the words lose meaning. The way in which the words revolve is visually perceived as moving simultaneously clockwise and counterclockwise, and depending on which movement is consciously followed, the words can appear to be moving in either direction.

Flutter of Butterflies, Ephemeral Life

When no one is in the space, it is completely dark and nothing exists. When people enter the space and stand still, butterflies are born from their feet where they stand, or from their hands where they touch the wall. When people touch the butterflies themselves, the butterflies die.

The artwork is not a pre-recorded image that is played back: it is created by a computer program that continuously renders the work in real time. The interaction between people and the installation causes continuous change in the artwork: previous visual states can never be replicated, and will never reoccur. The picture at this moment can never be seen again.

Continuous Life and Death

Multiple seasons exist simultaneously, changing gradually across the installation space. The seasonal flowers repeat the cycle of life and death in perpetuity, and the places where they grow change. When people touch the flowers, the petals scatter, and when they keep their hands still, more flowers begin to grow.
The world of the artwork changes with the real flow of time of its location. The artwork grows brighter as the sun rises and darker when the sun sets. 
The time experienced by the viewer’s body, the time of the location, and the time of the flower's repeating the cycle of life and death, all intersect and overlap, whilst remaining connected to the body, the place, and the world of the artwork. In the artwork space different times and spaces overlap.
The artwork is not a pre-recorded image that is played back; it is created by a computer program that continuously renders the work in real time. The interaction between people and the installation causes continuous change in the artwork, so previous visual states can never be replicated, and will never reoccur. The picture at this moment can never be seen again.

Universe of Fire Particles

The flames of Universe of Fire Particles change shape due to a black absolute presence.

Flames are a phenomenon of light and heat generated by combustion; it is a vaporized substance in a flow, a decomposed substance. It is our sensory experience of seeing what is in between phenomenon and substance.

Lines are drawn in relation to the flow of combusting gas, and the flames are created by the accumulation of those lines in three-dimensions. The lines are then “flattened” using what teamLab considers to be Ultrasubjective Space to represent the flames.

teamLab is exploring the concept of Distributed Art.
If you launch the Distributed Fire smartphone application and approach this artwork, the flame will ignite and you can take the artwork home with you. When you bring that flame close to another person's smartphone, a flame will alight. As you connect the flame, and they connect that flame with someone else, the flame will spread all over the world. The flames that are spread are displayed on the Map of The Flame.

Distributed Art duplicates itself, or a part of an artwork is distributed among people. Then, once in the hands of the people, the artwork is further actively distributed, and also makes copies of itself. The artworks will be distributed and exist on people's networks and become decentralized. When the artwork exists on the network, it continues to exist even if the original disappears.

First term: Jul 22 - Oct 9, 2023

Reversible Rotation - Light in Dark

The Spatial Calligraphy in this artwork space rotates in the same direction, but because of the characteristics of Ultrasubjective Space, visually, the clockwise and counterclockwise rotation are logically equivalent. Hence, the work can appear to be rotating in either direction depending on how the viewer chooses to look at it.

Spatial Calligraphy is a form of calligraphy drawn in space that teamLab has been exploring since it was founded. The artwork reconstructs calligraphy in three-dimensional space to express the depth, speed, and power of the brush stroke, and that calligraphy is then flattened using the logical structure of space that teamLab calls Ultrasubjective Space. The calligraphy shifts between two and three dimensions.

Dissipative Figures – Human, Light in Dark

The contours of life’s existence are not the surface boundary of the body, but something ambiguous that includes the environment that is continuous with it.
As long as people live, they dissipate energy and affect the environment, such as the flow of air.
In this artwork, the existence of a person is depicted through the energy dissipated by people into the world for as long as they live.

Being consists of the mind, the body, and the environment that is continuous with them.

Objects like stones and man-made creations so far have maintained a stable structure on their own. But life is different. Whereas a stone can continue to exist in a closed box, sealed off from the outside world, life would cease to exist.

Life is like a vortex created in the ocean. A vortex forms and exists in a flow of matter, and the boundaries of its existence are ambiguous.  

Although a vortex is steady, it is constantly moving and swelling like a powerful life-form. The vortex cannot maintain a stable structure on its own; rather, it is created and sustained by water that continuously flows inwards and outwards.

The same is true of life. It consumes external matter and energy as food and discharges it, sustaining its ordered structure as the energy dissipates. In other words, life does not exist by itself. It is the environment that is continuous with it that maintains the structure of life.

Life is a miraculous phenomenon that emerges from a flow in an open world. Like an ocean vortex, it is an existence with ambiguous boundaries in an infinite continuity.

To be alive is to be inseparable from the world, constantly dissipating energy into it.

Forest of Proliferating Immense Life

Multiple seasons exist simultaneously, changing gradually across the installation space. The seasonal flowers of the year repeat the cycle of life and death, proliferating and dying out in perpetuity, and the places where they grow change. When people touch the flowers, the petals scatter and fall away.

The space of the artwork is created with what teamLab refers to as Ultrasubjective Space. In contrast to spaces that are created through, or in other words cut out by, lenses and perspective, Ultrasubjective Space does not fix the viewer’s viewpoint and in turn frees the body. The wall that the flowers are seen on does not become a boundary between the viewer and the artwork, and the artwork space is continuous with the space of the viewer’s body.

Autonomous Abstraction

Autonomous abstraction.
The dots of light blink and change color in cycles unique to each dot. A spontaneous order phenomenon occurs between dots that are close to each other, and their hues and the rhythm at which they blink gradually synchronize. When people touch them, the rhythm of the blinking hues change and are randomized, but the dots close to each other once again cause a spontaneous order phenomenon between them.
The dots of lights emit a tone each time they blink. The tones can be heard continuously throughout the space; what sounds like music is solely created by the continuous tones produced by the blinking lights.

A spontaneous order phenomenon occurs when different rhythms influence each other and synchronize. Examples include when the pendulums of two clocks gradually begin to swing together; when many fireflies gather in one tree and all start blinking at the same time, creating a larger light as a whole; or when the cells that make up the heart synchronize and tremble simultaneously to create the pulse of the heart. This can be seen in various systems, from physical phenomena, neurophysiology, to ecosystems. Although the individual parts do not have the ability to observe the whole, the phenomenon of self-organization is the creation of an ordered and larger structure, resulting from the autonomous behavior of each individual part influencing each other. This phenomenon is also known as spontaneous order.

It is believed that entropy (a measurement of the lack of order in a system) in the universe will steadily increase (the law of increasing entropy) and that entities with form eventually collapse. Despite that, it is a wonder that the sun was created and the planets were born, that life was formed and societies exist. However, the reason why the universe, life, nature, and society continue to be maintained in spite of this may be because order is continuously formed on its own through the shared phenomenon of self-organization in the midst of disorder. In other words, the universe and our own existence are a continuous order created by the same phenomenon.

Life Survives by the Power of Life II

Although self and nature seem distinct, they are actually a single entity, inseparable from each other. The opposite of division is not unification, and we might  realize that existences that appear to be distinct are actually part of a single whole.The blessings and threats of nature, as well as the blessings and threats of civilization, are continuous. Neither is there a source of absolute malice, nor can it all be dismissed idealistically. Nonetheless, we seek to affirm life in all aspects. Life is beautiful.
In this artwork, 生 (sei), the character that signifies life, is written three-dimensionally using Spatial Calligraphy. Spatial Calligraphy is a form of calligraphy drawn in space that teamLab has been exploring since it was founded. The artwork reconstructs calligraphy in three-dimensional space to express the depth, speed and power of the brush stroke, and that calligraphy is then flattened using the logical structure teamLab calls Ultrasubjective Space. The calligraphy shifts between two and three dimensions.
The space of a traditional artwork, framed by a lens or perspective, appears to be on the other side of the artwork’s surface: the surface becomes a boundary, and the space where the viewer exists is separated from the artwork space. However, one of the characteristics of Ultrasubjective Space is that the artwork surface does not become a boundary. Thus the space in which the artwork exists, transcends the boundary of the artwork surface and is perceived as though it exists three-dimensionally in the same space where the viewer stands. The artwork space is continuous with the viewer’s physical space.

APP

Distributed Fire

Light the Flame

When you launch this app and approach Universe of Fire Particles Falling from the Sky, your flame will ignite and you can take the artwork home with you.

Share the Flame

If you approach other people with the app, you can share your flame with them.

See the Map of the Flame

The flames that are shared and spread, as well as the flames shared and spread by you, are displayed on the map in the app.

VISITE

Informations sur le Lieu

teamLab: Existence in an Infinite Continuity

Durée

First term: Jul 22 - Oct 9, 2023
Second term: Oct 21, 2023 - Jan 21, 2024
* The artworks in this exhibition will differ between the first and second term.

Horaires

10:00 - 17:00 (Last Entry 16:30)

Fermé

Mondays (except Monday, September 18, Monday, October 9, and Monday, January 8, 2024)
Tuesday, September 19
Thursday, December 28 through Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Website

Himeji City Museum of Art

Accès

Himeji City Museum of Art
68-25 Honmachi, Himeji City, Hyogo

Map

Adresse dans la langue locale:

姫路市美術館
兵庫県姫路市本町68-25

CONTACT

Aux Médias

Dossier de Presse

ARTISTE

teamLab

teamLab (f. 2001) is an international art collective. Their collaborative practice seeks to navigate the confluence of art, science, technology, and the natural world. Through art, the interdisciplinary group of specialists, including artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians, and architects, aims to explore the relationship between the self and the world, and new forms of perception.

In order to understand the world around them, people separate it into independent entities with perceived boundaries between them. teamLab seeks to transcend these boundaries in our perceptions of the world, of the relationship between the self and the world, and of the continuity of time. Everything exists in a long, fragile yet miraculous, borderless continuity.

teamLab’s works are in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra;  Amos Rex, Helsinki; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, Istanbul; and Asia Society Museum, New York, among others.

teamlab.art

Biographical Documents

teamLab is represented by Pace Gallery, Martin Browne Contemporary and Ikkan Art.

Organisateurs

Himeji City Museum of Art

Special Cooperation

The Kobe Shimbun