teamLab to Participate in Group Exhibition at Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in Mumbai, India, Opening July 3 (Fri); Exhibition Works Revealed

teamLab will participate in the group exhibition "Second Nature" at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai, India. This exhibition, held across all four floors of the Art House within the center, will feature works alongside large-scale pieces by Random International, A.A. Murakami, Simon Heijdens, and Es Devlin. The exhibition runs from July 3, 2026 (Fri) to January 10, 2027 (Sun). The works to be exhibited in the group exhibition have now been revealed.

Tickets are on sale on the official website.

https://www.nmacc.com/visual-arts/second-nature/

Message from Ms. Isha Ambani, Director, Reliance Group

Today, art is evolving beyond its traditional boundaries, shaped not only by human imagination but also by intelligent systems that interpret and learn about our world. Through "Second Nature," we aim to deliver experiences that evoke curiosity, emotion, and deep contemplation. This is also an endeavor to explore how deeply technology, nature, and human creativity are becoming intertwined. This exhibition invites you to engage in a dialogue with a future that is already astonishingly close.

[Exhibition Works]

Nirvana: Fleeting Flowers, Radiance Within

teamLab, "Nirvana: Fleeting Flowers, Radiance Within" © teamLab

This work, part of the Fleeting Flower series, depicts a world of flowers that repeatedly bloom and die. When people touch the flowers, they scatter, and the world of the artwork diminishes. Everything exists precariously and miraculously on the continuum of life without boundaries.

This work is inspired by the "Byōbu" (folding screen) paintings of birds, animals, and flowers by Ito Jakuchu (1716–1800), who was active in Kyoto during the Edo period, such as "Chōjū Kaboku Zu Byōbu" and "Juka Chōjū Zu Byōbu." Jakuchu created a unique style known as "masume-ga" (grid painting), where he divided the entire screen into tens of thousands of squares and arranged the colors of flora and fauna in each square. Masume-ga appears as an aggregation of squares when viewed up close, but when viewed from a distance, the divided colors blend through optical phenomena called visual mixing, forming images of flora and fauna. The perceived image changes with distance. This work references the logical structure of masume-ga, where "the image changes depending on perspective and perception," while continuously generating a pictorial space through the life of flowers, visual mixing, body movement, light, and relationships with others.

The four walls surrounding the room become a single pictorial space. Viewers do not look at the screen from outside the painting but enter the world depicted by the flowers. By touching them, the flowers scatter, and the world diminishes. Simultaneously, when others touch them elsewhere, the flowers in that location scatter, and the artwork changes. One's own body, the presence of others, and the artwork are all related within the same space.

The pictorial space here is depicted through "ultra-subjective space," creating a pictorial space that restores freedom of the body.

Meanwhile, while the painting depicts a world, a strong radiance also envelops that world. This radiance is generated by the light that depicts the painted world reflecting on the screen itself. As viewers move, the radiance undulates and changes according to their bodies, and light emerges from the depths of the painted world.

The space created by this radiant light is not an illusory depth depicted in a flat painting. It is a space that arises at that moment through the viewer's body movements and the light that depicts the painted world. While appearing on the screen, the pictorial space connects with the real space where the body exists, expanding into the depths of the pictorial space as a bodily space of light.

The bodily pictorial space created by ultra-subjective space and the bodily light space overlap, creating a boundless, bodily pictorial world that connects with the space where the viewer is.

This work is presented not as a self-contained piece but as something that continuously updates its meaning through relationships with people. Touching it, others touching it, body movements, the radiance of light—all these change the world of the artwork. Here, blooming, scattering, and dying flowers, the viewer's body, the presence of others, and the radiance of light overlap, expanding the pictorial space into a bodily, luminous pictorial world that is continuous with real space.

Resonating Microcosms - Solidified Light

teamLab, "Resonating Microcosms - Solidified Light" © teamLab

Each Ovoid, when pushed and knocked over by a person, shines brightly and stands up on its own while emitting a tone. Surrounding Ovoids respond one after another, continuing the same light and tone. The artwork's space transforms through people's actions, making people and their environment part of the artwork.

The patterns of color that appear within exist as infinite possibilities until they are seen, and at the moment they are viewed, they are determined as a single form from that person's perspective. Then, the form continuously transforms in response to the viewer's moving body, the sculpture's own swaying, and the surrounding environment.

This work is part of the "Resonating Group Sculpture" series, which began with "teamLab Ball" (2009-). Each sculpture is an autonomous physical entity, yet they resonate with each other, forming a single continuous space as a group.

In this series, pushing with one's body, being moved by others, the effects of the environment such as wind and rain outdoors, the behavior of wild animals, and the adjacent sculptures within the same group, as well as surrounding works, all become triggers for resonance. Light, sound, and movement originating in one sculpture do not remain confined to that individual but cascade to nearby sculptures, and further to surrounding works and spaces, connecting to the whole.

Here, humans are not the only ones moving the artwork. Bodies, others, the environment, and the artwork are connected in the same ecological response field, and individual sculptures exist not in isolation but in relationship.

This structure is an attempt to expand the sculpture from an "autonomous individual object" to a networked existence that continuously generates itself in relation to the body, others, the environment, and other works. In this ecological response field where humans and non-humans participate together, the boundaries of the sculpture extend beyond the outlines of individual objects.

Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together

teamLab, "Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together" © teamLab

Flowers are born, bloom, eventually scatter, and die. They repeat the cycle of life and death eternally, while the place where they are born slowly shifts. If people remain still, the flowers in their vicinity will bloom, and if people touch the flowers or walk around, they will all scatter and die.

The work is not a pre-recorded video but is continuously rendered in real-time, influenced by people's behavior, and the same scene will never appear twice.

During a visit to the satoyama (rural landscape) of the Kunisaki Peninsula in spring, I wondered how much of the cherry blossoms and rapeseed flowers in the mountains and foothills were planted by humans and how much were wild. It was a very pleasant place, overflowing with flowers. I felt that this nature was an ecosystem influenced by human activity, and that nature and humans were not in opposition. Is pleasant nature an ecosystem that includes human activity?

This work, based on the premise that nature cannot be completely controlled, explores human activities that align with the rules of nature.

This work is an ecological pictorial space that continuously generates itself with the body, others, time, and the environment, depicted through "ultra-subjective space." Viewers walk through the world of the artwork with their bodies, touch it, and change it together with others in the same space.

This pictorial space is different from images or paintings flattened by lenses or single-point perspective. In images and paintings using lenses or single-point perspective, space appears in the depth of the screen, dividing the space that unfolds there from the space where the viewer is, with the screen acting as a boundary. The viewpoint is fixed at a single point, and freedom of movement is lost.

In contrast, the screen rendered through "ultra-subjective space" is not a boundary separating our space from the artwork. The world of the artwork appears not outside a window but as a single field continuous with the space where the viewer's body is. Furthermore, since all directions—front, back, left, and right—can be viewpoints, there are infinite viewpoints, and viewers regain freedom of movement.

Viewers are not bound to a specific point; by moving their bodies and freely shifting their gaze, they reconfigure the artwork as it changes over time, creating a pictorial space within themselves. At that moment, this work becomes a subjective, bodily pictorial space without a center, where the viewer walks and touches.

In this space, the boundary between the viewer and the artwork becomes ambiguous. The artwork transforms simply by the presence of the body, and the actions of others also change the world of the artwork. In traditional art appreciation, others are often perceived as an obstacle to the one-on-one relationship with the artwork. However, here, the presence of others creates new changes in the artwork. Others are transformed into beings that enrich the artwork.

This work is an attempt to expand painting from a "world beyond the screen" to a space continuous with the body, others, time, and the environment. The artwork is continuously generated through people's behavior, the life and death of flowers, the passage of time, and the relationships within the entire space. Here, the painting is not a self-contained entity but exists as a boundless ecological field, interacting with people's bodies and encompassing the presence of others.

About the Exhibition

"Second Nature" focuses on the evolving and interdependent relationships between humans, technology, and the natural world. The exhibition is a global collaboration by international artists at the forefront of art and technology, curated by the co-founders and curators of Superblue, a pioneer in experimental art.

https://www.nmacc.com/visual-arts/second-nature/

Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC)

The Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) is a multi-arts center located in the heart of Mumbai, India. Since its opening in March 2023, it has served as a hub for showcasing outstanding works of performing arts, visual arts, and traditional crafts from India and around the world. https://www.nmacc.com/

Second Nature

https://www.teamlab.art/jp/e/nmacc/

Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre

Jio World Centre, G Block Rd, G Block BKC, Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra East, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400051

Google Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/zKMLeP1E2yZmX3up8

Exhibition Dates

July 3, 2026 (Fri) - January 10, 2027 (Sun)

Hours

Tuesday - Thursday, Sunday: 11:00 - 20:00

Friday - Saturday: 11:00 - 22:00

Closed

Monday

Ticket Purchase

https://tickets.jioworldcentre.com/booking/eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzaG93SWQiOiI0MzIxMDAxNTAyIiwiR3Vlc3QiOiJZIiwiaWF0IjoxNzgxODQyMjg5LCJleHAiOjE3ODE4NDU4ODl9.xYT136rATbxtH-LyLdfhAcjlnMTIr5TuyO-DwRSPZHo