.ART

‘Massless’ opened on August 30 and will run through to January 6, 2019.

‘Graffiti Nature’ by teamLab

Amos Rex has announced its international curatorial aspirations through its choice of the 500 member strong ‘teamLab’ collective from Japan. Their large-scale interactive works take full advantage of the immense space offered by the gallery. The ‘Graffiti Nature’ component of the teamLab exhibition features a lively display of flora and fauna generated by visitors to the exhibition. Whales playfully glide across the museum’s surfaces, while flowers bloom, and lizards dart about.

Another component of the teamLab exhibition, ‘Vortex of Light’, has converted the museum’s main hall into an eddy of blue and white light. The light particles mimic the effect of water being sucked upwards. The resultant effect is enhanced by the shape of the museum, as the water seems to pour upwards into a skylight that is somehow reminiscent of a black hole.

‘Vortex of Light’ by teamLAB

Museum Director Kai Kartio has expressed his pride at being able to open the museum with a teamLab exhibition saying that “part of the exhibition is aimed specifically at children and the young at heart”. The building space itself has also been designed with this in mind, with Asmo Jaaski, the lead architect of JKMM, stating that they wanted to “make it like a playground, and also to make a kind of new city space and city culture”.

The gallery is largely underground, taking up more than 2,200 square meters of space under the public square. The design posed unique challenges but the resultant space allows visitors to feel connected with the cityscape above whilst creating an exciting public space, truncated with the extraterrestrial esque skylights.

Gallery Amos Rex. Courtesy: JKMM Architecture

Gallery Amos Rex at night © Mika Huisman

Gallery Amos Rex. Interior © Tuomas Uusheimo

Teamlab are one of the .ART early adopters. Find out more about the collective at teamlab.art.