Tokyo will get a museum built entirely around digital art this summer. Urban developer Mori Building and the art collective teamLab made the announcement in Tokyo. Together they will open the MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM teamLab Borderless in Odaiba, inside the Palette Town complex.
The scale is large. The museum will cover roughly 10,000 square meters of floor space, laid out like a labyrinth. It will also be teamLab’s first permanent exhibition, which makes Odaiba the group’s flagship site in Tokyo. Ticket prices, admission rules and opening hours had not been announced yet.
The name explains the idea. Borderless means removing the lines between one artwork and the next. It also means erasing them between art and viewers, and between oneself and others. Works move and blend, so visitors become part of the art instead of facing it. The two partners said they hope the space will push people to rethink old values and suggest new social frameworks.
Each side brings its own goal. Mori Building has long woven art into the city through cultural projects. In its view, a city needs culture to draw creative people and companies from around the world. By contrast, teamLab wants to free art from physical limits as technology and creativity overlap.
Together they want a destination that lifts Tokyo’s appeal in the run-up to 2020 and after. The partners expect the museum to become a tourism draw that also gets people thinking.
Mori Building is known for its Vertical Garden City concept. It stacks offices, schools, leisure space and homes into high-rise urban centers. Its projects include ARK Hills, Roppongi Hills and Toranomon Hills in Tokyo, as well as the Shanghai World Financial Center. It also works in real estate leasing, project management and consulting.
teamLab dates back to 2001. It brings together artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects. Their work sits where art, science, technology, design and nature meet. Its pieces are held in permanent collections at six museums.
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
- Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
- Asia Society Museum, New York
- Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, Istanbul
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Odaiba, however, will be the first place where its work stays on view for good.
