“Biovortex” by teamLab transforms art experience in Kyoto

KYOTO, Japan: An immersive art space in the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto is offering a novel experience to visitors from around the world, aiming to dissolve the boundary between observer and art.

Titled “Biovortex”, the exhibition is the latest and largest permanent installation in Japan created by teamLab, an art collective that has risen to global fame for its pioneering approach blending art, technology and nature.

Biovortex, which opened on October 7, presents more than 50 immersive digital artworks spanning 10,000 square metres (107,639 square feet) and is attracting a broad spectrum of visitors from toddlers to the elderly.

In one of the installations, called “Morphing Continuum”, countless glowing spheres float in space as a monumental sculpture emerges from the ground and drifts in midair, constantly shifting and reshaping in response to visitors’ movements.

“Viewers become one with the sculpture, while the boundaries between themselves and artwork grow indistinct and float in air,” said teamLab founder Toshiyuki Inoko. “It creates an experience unlike anything humanity has ever made in terms of material objects – something that defies ordinary expectations. I think the artworks offer an experience which expands human perceptions.”

Visitors expressed surprise at the intensity of emotion and physical immersion that the experience offered.

“Just wonderful,” said Dimitri VanCorstanje, a 25-year-old tourist from the Netherlands. “It immersed me more than just with my eyes.”

Founded in 2001 by a group of artists, engineers, and architects, teamLab has expanded its collections beyond Japan, from New York to Singapore and Jeddah, attracting millions of visitors each year. One of its permanent exhibitions, teamLab Planets in Tokyo, set the Guinness World Record for the world’s most visited museum dedicated to a single art group with 2,504,264 visitors in the fiscal year of 2023.