New Immersive Sauna + Art Experience by teamLab Will Put You in a ‘Sauna Trance’

teamLab Reconnect Sauna and Art Experience Tokyo

Ephemeral Solidified Light; teamLab, 2021, Interactive Installation

Have you ever been to one of those immersive art experiences…that’s also a sauna? Neither have we. In fact, before 2021, there were very few people who had ever heard of such a thing. But it really does exist. In a partnership with TikTok, international art collective teamLab is back with another stunning immersive exhibition—but this time with an innovative twist. Open until August 31 in Tokyo, TikTok teamLab Reconnect is a completely new kind of sauna and art experience that will allow viewers to “experience art in their finest mental state.”

“[This] is not an ordinary art exhibition, nor is it a standard sauna,” teamLab explains in a statement. “It is a new practice where a visitor’s mental state itself is altered and enhanced by entering a sauna prior to viewing art, challenging the conventional notions behind art experiences. By repeating the cycle of sauna, cold shower, and rest, a visitor enters a unique ‘sauna trance’ state, in which the senses sharpen, the mind clears, the beauty of the surrounding world comes into focus, and what normally goes unnoticed can be experienced. TeamLab utilizes this finest mental state to immerse visitors in ‘supernature’ art through their ever-expanding physical sensations, allowing them to reconnect to the continuity of the world and time.”

This concept of viewing art while in a sauna may sound novel, but it is actually based in ancient Japanese traditions. Now merging this traditional pastime with the digital and immersive art space, teamLab offers a way of experiencing art that is truly unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. After going through the saunas—each suffused with colorful lighting and calming scents—and the cold bathing area, visitors are then invited to rest in one of five immersive installations. They are encouraged to repeat the cycle each time before viewing a new piece of art.

Several of teamLab’s signature boundary-defying pieces will be on display, including some from their newest project, Supernature Phenomena. Some of the featured pieces include Levitation, Ephemeral Solidified Light, Proliferating Immense Life in the Rain, and Step into the Light Circle. In collaboration with TikTok, they also created an augmented reality piece on the app that people can experience from anywhere, called Every Life Survives in Fluctuating Space.

With installations featuring objects ranging from levitating orbs—pulsating with energy and color—to floating crystals of solidified light, nothing about TikTtok teamLab Reconnect is at all conventional. To learn more about this otherworldly sauna and art experience, visit teamLab’s website.

International art collective teamLab's latest exhibition is a never-before-seen art and sauna experience, featuring some of the group's signature immersive installations.

teamLab Reconnect Sauna and Art Experience Tokyo

Ephemeral Solidified Light; teamLab, 2021, Interactive Installation

teamLab Reconnect Sauna and Art Experience Tokyo

Array and Spiral of Resonating Lamps – One Stroke, Metropolis Tokyo; teamLab, 2021, Interactive Installation

teamLab Reconnect Sauna and Art Experience Tokyo

Proliferating Immense Life in the Rain – A Whole Year per Year; teamLab, 2020, Interactive Digital Installation

Step Into the Light Circle

Step into the Light Circle; teamLab, 2021, Interactive Digital Installation

Visitors must first pass through colorful sauna rooms followed by a cold bathing area—which causes a “sauna trance” and allows them to experience the art in a heightened mental state.

teamLab Reconnect Sauna and Art Experience Tokyo

Burning Magenta Sauna Room

Silent Yellow Sauna

Silent Yellow Sauna Room

Water Harp Cyan Sauna

Water Harp Cyan Sauna Room

One of the pieces on display is called Ephemeral Solidified Light, from teamLab's latest project Supernature Phenomena.

Ephemeral Solidified Light

Ephemeral Solidified Light

Another new piece is called Proliferating Immense Life in the Rain.

teamLab Reconnect Sauna and Art Experience Tokyo

teamLab Reconnect Sauna and Art Experience Tokyo

On display in the cold bathing area is this piece, Step into the Light Circle.

Step Into the Light Circle

teamLab Reconnect Sauna and Art Experience Tokyo

This mesmerizing piece, called Levitation, is also a part of the exhibition.

Levitation

teamLab Reconnect Sauna and Art Experience Tokyo

In partnership with TikTok, teamLab even created an augmented reality piece called Every Life Survives in Fluctuating Space that can be experienced from anywhere.

Tiktok Effect Every Life Survives in Fluctuating Space Outdoor

teamLab: Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

All images via teamLab.

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Arnesia Young

Arnesia Young is a contributing writer for My Modern Met and an aspiring art historian. She holds a BA in Art History and Curatorial Studies with a minor in Design from Brigham Young University. With a love and passion for the arts, culture, and all things creative, she finds herself intrigued by the creative process and is constantly seeking new ways to explore and understand it.
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