Newest cultural landmark teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi makes waves

The multi-sensory art experience, teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi, developed by Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), Miral, the leading creator of immersive destinations and experiences in Abu Dhabi, and art collective teamLab, has opened its doors to the public and enthralled visitors from all corners of the globe. The unique art experience is located in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Cultural District, alongside Louvre Abu Dhabi and other cultural landmarks that are soon to be open.

Designed to explore and transcend the limits of every guest’s imagination, each artwork within the unique, purpose-built venue will evolve over time through the interplay of light, sound and movement. Based on teamLab’s new concept, Environmental Phenomena, teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi features artworks created by phenomena resulting from unique environments. Visitors will discover artworks that are fluid, existing in a dynamic relationship with their environment. Each artwork responds to guests’ actions and natural changes in the environment, creating a living, breathing art experience, unlike any other.

 The venue engages sight, sound, and touch, encouraging guests to change the way they feel, connect and affect the world around them. Each visit is a dynamic, ever-evolving experience that leaves a lasting, transformative impact, resonating long after the journey ends.

Here’s a look at the massive experiential artworks waiting to be discovered.

Everyday substances like air, water, and light become phenomena through the unique environment, and these phenomena constitute the existence of the artwork. The artwork is inseparable from the environment and changes along with it. It transcends the various notions of existence through physical objects.

Even if you place your hand inside the artwork, it does not break, and its existence is maintained. You realize that the artwork is just ordinary water. The artwork does not exist by itself; the distinctive phenomenon created by the unique environment is the existence of the artwork.

Conversely, if the environment is not maintained, the artwork will disappear. The outlines of the artwork's existence are ambiguous, and it is continuous with the environment.

 When the viewer moves, the location and colour of the artwork change. The artwork seen by the viewer is visible only to that viewer. For the person next to them, the artwork is in a different location and has a different colour. In other words, the artwork being seen does not exist in the physical world but exists in the viewer's cognitive world. Such artworks that exist in the perceived world are referred to as cognitive sculpture. When it exists within perception, it is considered to exist.

Flutters of butterflies appear from the ground and the walls where people touch. Through the simple interactions among the butterflies, a part of the artwork continues to create spontaneous order even as the entire flutter moves in disorder.

This piece is called Flutter of Butterflies. However, it is not an illusion of space; instead, the space of the artwork exists as it is in the space where people’s bodies are, filling the space with butterflies.

Walls and floors do not act as a boundary between the person and the space of the artwork, but rather, the space of the artwork integrates with the space in which the viewer's body exists. The viewpoint is not fixed, and their body remains free.

The flow is influenced by the shape of the space and the presence of people, and it continuously interacts with and transforms in relation to all other flows in the artwork space. It is a continuum of countless interacting particles, and lines are drawn by the trajectories of these particles.

This work is not an illusion of space; the artwork exists as it is in the space where people's bodies are, and the space becomes enveloped in wind, transforming into a sculpture of wind.

Each Floating Lamp on the water glows with its own rhythm. Over time they mutually influence nearby lamps and Tea in Spontaneous Order, starting a spontaneous order phenomenon, and the rhythms of their flickering become closer to each other. When people push the lamps, their rhythm changes. Then, again a spontaneous order occurs with nearby lamps and Tea in Spontaneous Order.

Each time the lamp glows, it emits a tone. The only sound that resonates in the space is the sequence of sounds, and the overall tone of the space is formed by the sequence of the tones of the flickering.

The lamps take on various rhythms depending on people's behaviour, but a time structure is created by the simple localised interaction between the lamps and Tea in Spontaneous Order, and order continues to be created throughout the work.

The spontaneous order phenomenon is when different rhythms influence each other and become aligned. The pendulums of two pendulum clocks hanging on a wall gradually become aligned. When many fireflies gather in a tree, they gradually begin to flash at the same time, creating a larger accumulated light. The cells that make up the heart pulsate in unison, synchronizing with each other to produce heartbeats. This is seen in a wide variety of systems, including physical phenomena, neurophysiology, life systems, and ecosystems.

When a cup of tea is made, Tea in Spontaneous Order glows and produces a tone with its own rhythm.

Tea in Spontaneous Order interacts with nearby Tea in Spontaneous Order and the Floating Lamps, causing a spontaneous order phenomenon, in which the flickering rhythms converge.

The artwork is born when the tea is made, and disappears when the tea is drunk.

The colour of the tea as a whole does not change; that is, when viewed from a distance, it remains the same colour, but inside the tea the colour is constantly changing, and this colour has a time structure.

Through simple local interactions between Tea in Spontaneous Order and the nearby Tea in Spontaneous Order and Floating Lamps, a time structure is created throughout the entire space of the artwork.

– In association with Saadiyat Cultural District