Lifestyle

3 Amazing Outdoor TeamLab Exhibitions in Japan

If you think teamLab Borderless is mind-blowing, wait till you see the collective’s outdoor works set in nature.

Text by: Lim Chee Wah

Japan’s leading force in digital art, teamLab is celebrated globally for its trail-blazing exhibitions where cutting-edge technology meets immersive sound and light design. Since opening its first museum in Tokyo in 2018, the collective has expanded its imaginative – and wildly popular – exhibitions across the world.

While most people know of teamLab’s indoor work, it’s their sprawling outdoor exhibitions that truly push the boundaries of what technology can do to reshape our interaction with art (and the environment). Here are three of teamLab’s most mind-bending open-air, nature-based experiences – each set in a different region of Japan – that will transform the way you think about contemporary art in this digital age.

teamLab: Hidden Traces of Rice Terraces

teamLab, Hidden Traces of Rice Terraces © teamLab

Tucked away in a coastal mountain valley in Tokyo’s neighbouring prefecture of Ibaraki, Hidden Traces of Rice Terraces may be teamLab’s most remote project to date.

Born from the collective’s Digitised Nature concept, this outdoor nighttime exhibition transforms a forgotten landscape into an immersive work of art without harming the natural environment. At the heart of this attraction is a set of abandoned rice terraces, now restored and reimagined into a magical exhibit featuring floating lamps that respond to their environment through light and sound. The accompanying installation, Water Mirror Path through the Hidden Rice Terraces, takes it a step further by creating an illusion as if you’re walking on water.

teamLab, Resonating Universe in the Tabunoki Tree © teamLab

The surrounding valley offers more surreal experiences. The Resonating Universe in the Tabunoki Tree looks fantastical, strung with glowing glass orbs as a visual nod to the underground fungi network that connects trees in a forest. In Concrete and Abstract, laser-fine lines are projected onto the foliage, as if they are scanning and digitising nature.

Nearby, the sea appears large and looming, with light projections that will have you transfixed at the waves’ ebbing flow. There’s also the Bamboo Forest of the Secret Valley, where motion sensors elevate this classic Japanese scenery into a musical experience.

You could visit Hidden Traces of Rice Terraces as a day trip from Tokyo, but if you prefer a full immersion, the site offers overnight cottages and glamping facilities. There’s even a natural hot spring, piped into an indoor onsen as well as an outdoor one. The latter, lit up with floating lamps, is actually an extension of the rice terraces, so it blends in with the installation after dark.

teamLab: Botanical Garden Osaka

teamLab, Sculptures of Dissipative Birds in the Wind © teamLab

Opened in 1974, Osaka’s Nagai Botanical Garden flew under the tourist radar for decades. That changed in 2022, when it became the site of teamLab Botanical Garden Osaka, an outdoor exhibition that transforms this city-centre green space into an immersive art experience after nightfall.

One of teamLab’s signatures, the reflective ovoids similar to the ones at Tokyo’s teamLab Planets are reinterpreted here in a new context. In Resonating Microcosms in the Common Camellia Garden – Solidified Light Color, Dusk to Dawn, these luminous forms are scattered across a forested ground like Easter eggs, and they send off a ripple effect of light and sound when approached, like a living system.

In nearby Eucalyptus Park, another set of ovoids – bigger, opaque and arranged in a maze-like formation – behaves like inflatable punching dummies. As you push through the Forest of Autonomous Resonating Life – Eucalyptus, they tip over and rebound while changing colour and emitting sounds that resonate across the space.

teamLab, Resonating Microcosms in the Common Camellia Garden – Solidified Light Color, Dusk to Dawn© teamLab

Easily the botanical garden’s most futuristic-looking piece, Sculptures of Dissipative Birds in the Wind features larger-than-life geometric monuments that give off a sci-fi impression. On them are dynamic digital swirls inspired by the flight patterns of local birds, a visually striking reminder of the botanical garden’s rich ecosystem.

Elsewhere, digital figures drawn from Japanese folklore move silently through the trees, while floating lamps on the lake glow in response to wind and movement. There are seasonal installations, too, and they rotate throughout the year, including a sunflower field in summer.

After a day of shopping and eating your way through the city, a visit to teamLab Botanical Garden Osaka offers a welcome change of scenery after dark – and a unique way to experience nature.

teamLab: A Forest Where Gods Live

A Forest Where Gods Live is one of teamLab’s earliest and most expansive outdoor exhibitions, and arguably still one of its most impressive. Much of its magic lies in the setting: the sprawling 500,000-square-metre Mifuneyama Rakuen Park that was established way back in 1845.

Steeped in history and spiritual significance, the park is home to sacred relics and a scattering of abandoned buildings. Much of it has been left to nature; only a few small areas appear landscaped. What teamLab has done exceptionally well here is honour the park’s heritage: using cutting-edge light and motion technology to guide you through this land while drawing attention to its natural and cultural stories.

Installations like Ever Blossoming Life Rock, a cyclical projection of blooming flowers, and Universe of Water Particles on a Sacred Rock, a silent digital waterfall cascading among the trees, highlight the unusually large boulders throughout the park. In a nearby cave adorned with Buddhist figures, digital calligraphy strokes unfurl across the stone to remind us of the ancient human existence on this land. Two light-based installations – one stretching across the azalea valley, the other cast onto the craggy mountain behind – pulse with colour, making the landscape feel as though it’s alive and breathing.

Some of the most enchanting moments occur in the disused spaces. At Megaliths in the Bath House Ruins, glowing digital monoliths arise like totems in a sci-fi world. A fiery orb ‘burns’ at the end of a darkened underground corridor. Everything looks so surreal under teamLab’s genius touch, as if you’ve stepped into another dimension.

The exhibition extends into the park’s Mifuneyama Rakuen Hotel, where the lobby houses one of teamLab’s most iconic works: the Resonating Lamps. For those looking to explore deeper, the hotel has collaborated with teamLab for a transformative art-meets-sauna installation. This multisensory, meditative experience, however, requires a separate ticket.

Note: A Forest Where Gods Live only opens between July and November every year. This year, the exhibition closes on November 3.