Globally renowned digital art collective teamLab is known for its extraordinary art installations that are imaginative and immersive. The highly Instagrammable teamLab Borderless museum in Odaiba is one of Tokyo’s most popular attractions, and now Fukuoka can also experience the collective’s cutting-edge interactive art without leaving the city. This new teamLab sensation recently opened at Boss E Zo Fukuoka on July 21, hosting a total of ten exhibitions, seven of which are brand new.
Fukuoka's teamLab Forest is a permanent exhibition, with two main areas: the ‘Catching and Collecting Forest’ and the ‘Athletics Forest’. The former is a vast digital jungle, complete with animals roaming the walls. Using the free ‘Catching and Collecting Forest’ app on your phone, you can catch the animals, which will disappear from the wall once captured. When you’ve had a chance to study the animal, you can release it back into the forest for others to find.
The ‘Athletics Forest’ hosts nine exhibits that require more physical effort from visitors. One of the new installations, the ‘Rapidly Rotating Bouncing Sphere Caterpillar House’ is a room decorated with colourful balls that seem to be – you guessed it – spinning fast. When you approach, the spheres stop rotating, which is good news, since you have to walk across the room by standing on these spheres.
Meanwhile, ‘Soft Terrain and Granular Topography’ has an undulating floor made of trampoline-like material which you can walk on, and the colourful patterns projected on the ground will follow your every step.
The mesmerising ‘Typhoon Balls and Weightless Forest of Resonating Life - 9 Blurred Colors and 3 Base Colors’ is an entire room packed with large, illuminated 'egg' balloons, some on the ground and some floating. You can touch and bounce them around – their colours change with each touch and the balloons emit sounds that change depending on their colour.
The new teamLab Forest in Fukuoka is now open. Entry costs ¥2,200 (¥800 for 15 years old and under) and can be purchased from the Boss E Zo Fukuoka website.
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