Insight
ART INNOVATOR Q
Hannah Brandler chats to Takashi Kudo, a member of teamLab – the international art collective from Japan
& A
Tell us about teamLab. teamLab is an international art collective founded in 2001. It’s made up of specialists with different skillsets, including painters, CG animators, software and hardware engineers, mathematicians and architects. Founder Toshiyuki Inoko’s background is in physics and robotics, while mine is in literature and philosophy. I joined in 2010 and previously worked as editor-in- chief for a video game magazine in Stockholm. I don’t have a title as such at teamLab. We’re a collective so we don’t care about titles or independent names – we’re a team!
What’s teamLab’s mission? At teamLab, we try to form relationships between humans and the world through artworks. It’s comparable to travel. When
people travel, they experience the world. For instance, you might be able to see Mount Fuji in guidebooks, magazines, the internet or on TV, but if you really want to understand such a place then you need to travel there. At teamLab, we try to bring people inside different worlds and provide an experience that can’t be explained through words.
How has teamLab evolved? When we started, we were a group of like-minded outsiders with dreams to create artworks using various new technologies as tools. Now countries around the world treat us as artists.
Where has teamLab exhibited and how do you choose destinations? Our philosophy is to say yes to all destinations and opportunities. We want to work with like-minded
46 BUSINESS TRAVELLER
F R E Q UEN T F L Y ER
people who understand our art. Projects, however, can take five to six years, so we can’t work to tight, demanding schedules. We first debuted outside of Japan in 2011, with an exhibition at Kaikai Kiki Gallery in Taipei. Since then, we’ve gone all over the world – from New York to London, Paris, Singapore, Beijing and Melbourne.
The exhibitions are incredibly interactive. Can you give us some examples of how guests interact with the artworks? We’ve tried to recreate experiences of nature inside our museums. teamLab’s works are immersive, so include wind, aromas and sounds. We’re not gods so we can’t create natural wonders like a forest or rainbow but we can use architecture and technology to create a similar experience. It’s akin to how Impressionist artists used paint to depict nature. In the Floating Flower Garden at
teamLab Planets TOKYO, the space is filled with orchids that float above people as they wander through.
exhibits coming to
Hamburg, Jeddah, Abu Dhabi, Utrecht and Kyoto in 2025
New
What project are you most proud of? The creation of our permanent museums, teamLab Borderless: MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM and teamLab Planets TOKYO, were a turning point. It was also amazing to see sold-out tickets for our exhibitions in San Francisco’s Palo Alto in 2019, and in London in 2017.
2,504,264 people
visited teamLab Planets TOKYO between April
2023 and March 2024, setting
a Guinness World Record for the world’s most
visited museum for a single art group
What’s next for teamLab? A new exhibition called teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi in the emirate’s Saadiyat Cultural District. We’ve been working on the 17,000 sqm building for almost six years. We would like to create large-scale exhibitions and want to share the experience with as many people as possible. We’d love to do something in the UK and the US.
Where have you travelled recently? Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, New York and Austin.
What’s your dream destination? South America and South Africa. I also really like the UK, especially the beautiful countryside.
DECEMBER 2024/JANUARY 2025
IMAGE TEAMLAB, FLOATING FLOWER GARDEN: FLOWERS AND I ARE OF THE SAME ROOT, THE GARDEN AND I ARE ONE © TEAMLAB
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