teamLab Notes to Editors
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1. Referring to teamLab

Please always spell “teamLab” with lowercase “t” and uppercase “L” even at the beginning of a sentence.

teamLab is an artist represented by Pace Gallery, Martin Browne Contemporary, and Ikkan Art. Therefore please refer to teamLab as an “international art collective” or “art collective”. (*see teamLab bio in section 4 below)

Although teamLab is based in Tokyo, please refrain from describing teamLab as “Japanese” as teamLab is composed of specialists from around the world

2. Fact check

Please send any created materials and accompanying text to teamLab ahead of publication in order to run a fact check.

*We require a minimum of three weekdays - please consult us for urgent inquiries.

3. Material Usage/Filming Terms and Conditions

  • Please note that all teamLab works and materials are copyrighted under the copyright laws.
  • Please do not use in the following manner without the prior written approval of teamLab (including by email) any and all sounds, videos or images taken by the Coverage Activities and materials provided by teamLab (the “Materials”):
    1. to compose, modify, change or edit the Materials;
    2. to use the Materials for advertising certain commercial brands or goods;
    3. to broadcast, distribute, publish or make public any and all sounds, videos, images, or texts made of the Materials.
  • Please do not express a particular position or make suggestive metaphors or any other expressions that may evoke a particular position on matters of racial, religious, or any other discrimination, human rights, conflict, or political or social issues by using the contents of the Materials and/or teamLab copyrighted works.
  • [For Media planning to shoot onsite] Please respect the privacy, publicity, and other rights of a person or a thing in the Materials, and please obtain the necessary license(s), permission(s), or consent to use the Materials at your own responsibility and expense.
  • [For Media planning to shoot onsite] Please do not illuminate with any lighting (including, but not limited to, continuous lighting and strobe lighting such as camera flashes) the works at the Venue.
  • You agree not to alter, modify, make adaptations, or change the original content of the Materials. This includes but is not limited to; cropping; changing colors; photoshop; overlaying text on top of the image; overlaying images; collage; adding filters/effects; changing speed (fast-forwarding/slow-mo); adding transition effects; GIF, etc. The nature of the artwork must be presented as it is.
  • Please credit teamLab, the Venue, and the works at the Venue accordingly.
  • Please note that if any of the above items are breached, teamLab is entitled to any and all damages (including attorney fees) arising out of or resulting from the breach.
  • Please send any created materials and accompanying text to teamLab ahead of publication in order to run a fact check and ensure the above conditions are met.
  • If any of the above items are breached, teamLab may require the cessation of the Coverage Activities.
  • This consent form shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Japan.
  • Consent to and confer the exclusive jurisdiction of the Tokyo District Court of Japan in respect to all disputes, controversies or differences arising out of or in connection with this consent form.

    • 4. teamLab bio

    teamLab (f. 2001) is an international art collective. Their collaborative practice seeks to navigate the confluence of art, science, technology, and the natural world. Through art, the interdisciplinary group of specialists, including artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians, and architects, aims to explore the relationship between the self and the world, and new forms of perception.

    In order to understand the world around them, people separate it into independent entities with perceived boundaries between them. teamLab seeks to transcend these boundaries in our perceptions of the world, of the relationship between the self and the world, and of the continuity of time. Everything exists in a long, fragile yet miraculous, borderless continuity.

    teamLab exhibitions have been held in cities worldwide, including New York, London, Paris, Singapore, Silicon Valley, Beijing, and Melbourne among others. teamLab museums and large-scale permanent exhibitions include teamLab Borderless and teamLab Planets in Tokyo, teamLab Borderless Jeddah in Jeddah, teamLab SuperNature Macao, and teamLab Massless Beijing, with more to open in cities including Abu Dhabi, Hamburg, and Utrecht.

    teamLab’s works are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Asia Society Museum, New York; Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, Istanbul; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and Amos Rex, Helsinki.

    teamLab is represented by Pace Gallery, Martin Browne Contemporary, and Ikkan Art.

    Official website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Weibo

    5. How the collective was born and how it has evolved

    teamLab was founded in 2001 by Toshiyuki Inoko and several of his friends to create a “laboratory to experiment in collaborative creation”, i.e. “teamLab”. Through art, teamLab is interested in creating new experiences to explore what the world is for humans.

    teamLab has been creating art since the beginning with the unchanging aim to change people’s standards of value and contribute to societal progress.

    In the beginning, teamLab had neither the opportunity to present themselves, nor could they imagine how to financially sustain their art creation. However, teamLab believed in the power of digital technology and creativity, and kept creating something new, no matter which genre it would turn out to be. While teamLab took part in various projects to sustain themselves, the collective increased in the number of specialists such as architects, CG animators, painters, mathematicians, and hardware engineers.

    As time went on, while teamLab gained passionate followers, they were still ignored by the art world. Its debut finally came in 2011 at the Kaikai Kiki Gallery in Taipei, to which the collective was invited by the artist Takashi Murakami. Since then, teamLab has gained opportunities to join major contemporary art exhibitions in cosmopolitan cities starting with the Singapore Biennale 2013.

    In 2014, New York PACE Gallery started to help promote teamLab artworks. These fortunate factors allowed teamLab to expand rapidly, and in 2015, the collective was finally able to organize its own exhibition for the first time in Tokyo. These events further accelerated their evolution and gave them opportunities to exhibit internationally; New York, London, Paris, Singapore, Silicon Valley, Beijing, Taipei, and Melbourne among others. As of today, teamLab has welcomed over 35 million visitors to its art exhibitions worldwide.

    = teamLab recap =

    teamLab is an interdisciplinary art collective represented by Pace Gallery that brings together professionals from various fields of practice. Its members include visual artists, computer scientists, mathematicians, CG animators, web designers, roboticists, educators, architects, and engineers of all kinds. teamLab aims to collaboratively explore a confluence of art, science, technology, creativity, and the natural world

    6. teamLab and Digital Art

    teamLab explores new relationships between people and the world by investigating the new rapport between digital art and people.

    Expression Becomes Freed from Physical Matter and Transformation Itself can Become the Subject of Expression

    Digital technology enables complex detail and freedom for change. Before people started accepting digital technology, information and artistic expression had to be presented in some physical form. Creative expression has existed through static media for most of human history, often using physical objects such as canvas and paint. The advent of digital technology allows human expression to become free from these physical constraints, enabling it to exist independently and evolve freely.

    Furthermore, digital technology has made the expression of change itself more free and precise. It has become possible to express change based on the behavior of people and the artwork’s surroundings. This enables the artworks to become interactive with the viewers, and viewers are able to participate in the artwork.

    Expansion and Space Adaptability

    No longer limited to physical media, digital technology has made it possible for artworks to expand physically. Since digital art can easily expand, it provides us with a greater degree of autonomy within the space. We are now able to manipulate and use much larger spaces, and viewers are able to experience the artwork more directly.

    7. How teamLab creates as a collective

    Once the large concept of the artwork is set, specialized members related to the work are gathered to think more finely. For example, the Forest of Flowers and People: Lost, Immersed and Reborn work, which is on view at teamLab Borderless museums, is created by a group of specialists such as 3D CG flower model & animation creators, 3D software programmers, engineers who design equipment such as projectors, software programmers who localize and integrate dozens of projectors within the exhibition space, architects, and so on.

    teamLab artworks are created by a team of hands-on experts through a continuous process of creation and thinking. Although the large concepts are always defined from the start, the project goal tends to remain unclear, so the whole team needs to repeat the process of creating prototypes, experimenting, and thinking more finely as they progress. teamLab's organizational structure seems flat at first glance, but it is also extremely multidimensional, with an underlying layer that is unclear and undecided.

    8. teamLab Museums & Featured Exhibitions
  • teamLab Museums & Featured Exhibitions
    • 9. Featured on