The “Light Sculpture - Flow” series gives rise to a massive light sculpture made of flowing light, which surges, expands, and envelops people. The Light Sculpture that is born in a space called “Asymmetric Space” emerges as a different, asymmetric existence from both physical space and the world inside the mirror, moving back and forth between the real world and the world inside the mirror. TeamLab has previously created immaterial sculptures—“spatial sculptures with ambiguous boundaries.” “Why do we sense an existence in a whirlpool in the sea? And why do we even perceive it as life? Even if the components are separated spatially and temporally, when order is formed within the parts, the parts are recognized as a single existence, and at times are even felt as something life-like.” Based on this idea, a collective of flowing light creates a living cosmos. Concept details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/concept/lightsculpture-flow

Viewed from the center near the entrance of the space. This work begins when the school of fish from 《The Way of the Sea》 enters “Cosmic Void.” When the school leaves the space and disappears, the work comes to an end. If you stand at the center near the entrance of the space, the boundary between wall and floor disappears, the real space vanishes, and the lines traced by the school’s movement begin to draw themselves three-dimensionally through the space. You become bodily immersed in the world of the work, and people will gradually lose the boundary between their bodies and the work’s world. The school of fish, drawn in light, swims freely through the space, and its traces become trails of light, drawing lines in the space. In Zen, there is a term called “chido,” or the path of birds. The way birds travel is not fixed like a human “road”; it means freedom and the absence of traces. The movement of schools of several thousand to tens of thousands of fish is beautiful and mysterious, seeming almost like a single gigantic life form. It is said that there is no leader in the school and no communication; instead, they move according to simple rules such as moving when the neighboring fish move. However, the physiological mechanism behind the near-simultaneous movements seen in schools of hundreds of fish remains shrouded in mystery. It feels as if there is a universal principle at work here that humanity has not yet understood. The work is continuously drawn in real time by a computer program. It is not a playback of prerecorded video. As a whole, it continues to transform without ever reproducing a previous state. The picture of this very moment can never be seen again. Work page: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/ew/wayofthesea-cosmicvoid-azabudai/tokyo/

Based on the song’s energy and its distinctive rhythm, which can also sound like festival music, the piece was directed and produced around the theme of a “new festival” that brings together all kinds of cultures and elements. Combining a wide range of visuals—fragmentary situations and scenes that Hasegawa Hakushi himself associated with the song and selected, the powerful dance performance by Yoon Ji, a dancer active in Korea, the charming yet quirky characters and animation by Sawako Kageyama, Rintaro Unno’s keenly observed live-action footage of reality, and graphic design inspired by fireworks—it depicts an unknown festival and the excitement of its rising energy as elements that seem at first to be disconnected, blending reality and unreality, merge together.