It’s the day after its public opening on July 21 and teamLab's latest major spectacle, a new museum of interactive digital installations in Fukuoka, is oddly quiet.
The art collective’s installations are known worldwide for attracting throngs of visitors eager to chase moving digital imagery, interact with exhibits and linger over a profusion of colors, lights and sounds. Today, though, there are only small groups of families, couples and friends, all masked and far apart enough to avoid the possible spread of COVID-19 — and any accidental photobombing.
Located on the fifth floor of Boss E Zo Fukuoka, a new multipurpose entertainment complex, the indoor “forest” of large-scale exhibits, officially titled teamLab Forest Fukuoka — SBI Securities Co., Ltd, is the art collective’s second permanent indoor museum in Japan after teamLab Borderless in Tokyo’s Odaiba area. At thousands of square meters, it’s vast and includes seven brand new installations, but much like other on-site exhibitions and entertainment, it hasn’t escaped repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic.