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Japanese art collective teamLab’s Light Festival in Tadasu no Mori uses light, sound, and luminous balloons to focus visitors on the Shinto Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto. Shinto, a Japanese religion which was first recorded in the 8th century, translates into English as “the way of the gods.”
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While “the way” in Shinto can be read broadly as the everyday practice of the religion, teamLab wants visitors to think literally about their pathway to the sanctuary. Though the temple looks much the way it did when it was built in the 6th century, it is in fact new. Every 21 years the temple is rebuilt to maintain its stance as one of Japan’s oldest and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Ritual renewal is highlighted when visitors begin their approach to the temple, which lies in the Tadasu no Mori, a stand of primeval forest. The trees that line the pathway pulse and change color as visitors and animals encounter them. Like the shrine itself, this forest looks much as it did hundreds of years ago.
Light is an important element for the conceptual side of the installation, it is also a practical choice for material. “Since the entire forest is a religious space as well as a World Heritage Site, it was our duty to not damage any parts of the venue,” Takashi Kudo, communications director of teamLab, tells the Creator’s Project. “By using non-material tools like light, sound, and sensors, we turned the forest’s walking path into the installation space without physically changing the venue.”
teamLab uses what they call “resonating spheres” or lantern-like balloons that hover or lightly touch the space. These luminous orbs serve the project’s larger goal of connecting visitors to the surrounding space by changing color, emitting a tone when touched and syncing with the resonating trees beyond the gate. In this way, visitors are tied to the nature around them—a longstanding objective of teamLab’s artwork.
Like the practice of Shinto, teamLab’s work keeps the past alive through observations of nature and use of modern materials. Kudo says, “This ancient Japanese sense of spatial recognition has been lost in modern times. With our work, we explore whether the world itself has changed spatially, or if people have lost sight of how they once saw things.”
The Light Festival in Tadasu no Mori runs from August 17th through August 31st at Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto, Japan. For more on teamLab visit their site here.
To learn more about Thirst for the Extraordinary click here.
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