digital art
teamlab borderless
Imagine a huge, container-like building with complete darkness inside. Where to go? Like Alice in Wonderland, we follow a funny bunny that hops from wall to wall as a light figure...
... And then, all of a sudden, thousands of colourful flowers rain down on us. Fly around us. Fall to the ground, only to be carried up into the air again by the sound of the music. A never-ending dance of yellow, red, green and purple flowers on ceilings, walls, and floors. We stand in the middle of a bright summer meadow and wonderful, tender melodies play around us and everything around us.
A few cautious steps further on, the quick play of little ringing bells lures us into a forest on whose ground swaying treetops dance. It is summer. The twittering of birds is heard. Sunlight breaks through the canopy of leaves and swings gently to the sound of music. But autumn is approaching. And the lush green turns to flickering red. Wind and music quickly carry the leaves away. And now that winter is here, it's very quiet here in the forest. White light blinds the eyes like snow-covered landscapes in the sunshine. And when the longed-for spring enters the room, life returns to the forest and makes the little bells ring again.
The bunny has left us. So we follow a drunken frog that is staggering along a wall next to flower wheels. Into a room that makes us curious about its strange sounds. Rrrrip! Rrrrip! Like scraping a wooden stick across a washboard. Oie! Jui! Tza! Tza! The room is filled with the sound of battle cries. Dull drumming joins in. Just as unreal as the noises in this room are the nebulous figures. Seemingly without beginning and without end, they move over glass plates and almost hide the exit from this trance world.
Hardly prudent again, we stand in the next room and let wildly flickering stars rain down on us. In unison with lively and joyful music, they change quickly from white to blue to pink until – yes, until a rainbow suddenly shines on the curtain of stars. With this sight, we leave the sky and enter one room and several colourful flowers on our faces further, the sea. We are welcomed thunderously when we enter. And immediately carried away by the musical surf. And yet we feel completely safe in the midst of the crashing waves.
Back on land, we follow some colourful salamanders for the last time, speeding along the ground. A whale crosses our path and we stop for a moment. Can this really be true, or is it all just a beautiful imagination?
Japan, November 2019. | All words and photos by The Sturgheons.
