Every Wall is a Door
THE BROOKLYN RAIL登載。(July, 2021)
teamLab is an interdisciplinary collective of over 400 “ultra-technologists” formed in Tokyo in 2001. It’s tempting to frame them as heirs apparent to VanDerBeek’s vision. Relying on devices familiar to cinema and theater such as darkened rooms, outsized projection, and spectacle, teamLab aims to make visitors’ participation integral to the fruition of their artworks in the service of “democratizing” art. Their monumental interactive digital installation at Superblue Miami is titled, with precision, Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together - Transcending Boundaries, A Whole Year per Hour (2017), and merges with a second installation, Universe of Water Particles, Transcending Boundaries (2017). A wall-length mirror reflects the space upon itself, enveloping visitors in a visually sensuous, expansive playground of illusion. Everything moves. Flower petals blossom and accumulate or languidly drift away, responding in real-time to participants’ motions. Larger-than-life luminous, stylized flora scale the walls. Glowing, flowing streams swirl underfoot, receding into darkness. A dreamy instrumental soundtrack shimmers through the speakers.(Excerpt from the text)THE BROOKLYN RAIL