As visitors walk through a dimly lit entrance of the Mori Building Digital Art Museum in Koto Ward, Tokyo, they see an indefinite number of sunflowers spread out on the walls and the ground "costarring with" colorful plants and other objects. Sweet scents are present in the air. All these elements can give visitors the illusion that they have strayed into a field of flowers.
The flowers change every five minutes. This is an artwork named "Forest of Flowers and People: Lost, Immersed and Reborn," depicting the blooming of a total of 12 kinds of large flowers in all four seasons.
The flowers are designed to bloom under the feet of visitors or on the walls as they are touched, as sensors react when visitors come to a standstill.
"This is a museum where visitors get themselves involved in the works and create them together with others," said Ou Sugiyama, an official of the museum. "You'll never see the same work twice."
An art group named teamLab and Mori Building Co. cooperated to build one of the world's largest digital art museums based on the shared idea of creating the epicenter of this genre in Tokyo ahead of the capital's hosting of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. TeamLab consists of programmers, animators specialized in computer-generated images and experts in various other fields.
The museum comprises five worlds, including the "Athletics Forest" and the "Borderless World," which houses the "Animals of Flowers, Symbiotic" work.
The Athletics Forest gives visitors a "bouldering" experience in which they walk on rubber-made bumps that change color into red, green and others. When they bounce on a trampoline, a countless number of grains of stardust flutter under their feet. A fusion of athletics and art makes visitors feel as if they are experiencing a near-future sport.
The "Forest of Lamps," one of the five worlds, features lamps that change color into blue and pink as visitors come near. The space is entirely covered with mirrors, which give the impression that the lamps glitter brightly as many times as they actually do, thus creating a fantastical world.
I took a rest at the "En Tea House," yet another world of the five, designed like a cafe, to control my heightened emotions. Several seconds after pouring tea in a cup, hydrangeas and other flowers were seen blooming on the surface of the tea. They disappeared for a moment when I took a sip, but continued to bloom as long as the tea remained in my cup.
I could not help smiling as I was able to feel the spirit of the creators, who aim to entertain visitors wherever they are in the museum at any time.
-- Mori Building Digital Art Museum
Opened on June 21 this year, the facility exhibits about 50 works produced with the use of about 520 computers and about 470 projectors.
Address: 1-3-8 Aomi, Koto Ward, Tokyo
Opening hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, Sundays and national holidays; and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and days before national holidays.
Closed on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month.
Admission: 3,200 yen for high school students and older; and 1,000 yen for those 4 to junior high school students
Information: (03) 6406-3949 or https://borderless.teamlab.art/ (For tickets, visit https://ticket.teamlab.art/)
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