Inside teamLab Borderless in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
The first permanent site by the Japanese art collective in the Middle East.
Update: Earlier this week, teamLab officially opened its doors to its first immersive museum in the Middle East. Situated inside Jeddah, a historic UNESCO World Heritage Site and the gateway for pilgrimages to Islamic holy cities, the new museum spans around 10,000 square meters of floor area and houses over 80 independent artworks and installations.
Visitors are encouraged to wander, explore and discover the museum, where they can be immersed in the art and a borderless realm. Many of teamLab’s recognizable artworks have been installed, such as “Universe of Water Particles on a Rock where People Gather,” “Forest of Resonating Lamps – One Stroke“ and “Light Vortex” to name a few.
In addition, a myriad of new installations have also been unveiled for the first time. Among the works, “Persistence of Life in the Sandfall” explores the ephemeral beauty of flowers. Here, visitors can “touch” the flowers and flowing sands, before witnessing them scatter and decay. In another room, the scalding flames are burning incessantly with black mass in “Universe of Fire Particles: Born in the Darkness, Return to the Darkness.”
teamLab Borderless Jeddah is now open to visit from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. from Saturday to Wednesday. On Thursdays and Fridays, the museum is open between 3 p.m. and 2 a.m. The last entry to the museum is 90 minutes before closing time. For more information, visit teamLab’s official website.
Original: Acclaimed Japanese collective teamLab will bring its Borderless Museum to the Middle East. Housed in the historic city of Jeddah and produced in collaboration with the Saudi Ministry of Culture, the forthcoming museum will be permanently located by the Al-Arbaeen Lagoon and comprise of over 80 sensorial installations across a 10,000-square-foot space.
Founded in 2001 by Toshiyuki Inoko, teamLab began as a small four person group that looked to bridge new dialogues between humans and the environments they inhabit. Known for creating highly immersive audio-visual installations, the collective has since expanded to comprise roughly 400 contributors, including artists, mathematicians, architects, designers and engineers; as well as a number of permanent museums in Japan and pop-up installations around the world.
© teamLab
“A new understanding of the continuity between ourselves and the world.”
“People understand and recognize the world through their bodies, moving freely and forming connections and relationships with others,” teamLab said regarding its new museum. “The body has its own sense of time, and in the mind, boundaries between different thoughts are ambiguous, causing them to influence and at times intermingle with each other…The Borderless World transforms according to our presence, and as we immerse and meld ourselves into this unified world, we explore a continuity among people, as well as a new understanding of the continuity between ourselves and the world.”
20 years since its inception, the Guinness World Records crowned teamLab Borderless in Tokyo as the most visited museum from a single artist or group. Eager fans in the Middle East don’t have to venture as far now to step into the collective’s enchanting worlds, as the Jeddah loaction is set to open this summer.
teamLab Borderless
Jeddah Historic District
Saudi Arabia
