Last year, the HARAJUKU COLLECTIVE collaboration appeared at AF Gallery in Harajuku from August 10 until August 28, garnering massive acclaim from fans. The collection is now being sold at Shinsaibashi PARCO until March 12, 2023.

 

HARAJUKU COLLECTIVE is a Studio Ghibli-inspired apparel collection by the popular American counterculture chain Hot Topic. Bringing more Japanese culture to the ongoing Studio Ghibli collaboration launched in 2014, Hot Topic stores began selling original items produced by nine Japanese creators and brands, as well as some original American items produced by Hot Topic’s executive designers.

 

The lineup of Japan-original items includes T-shirts, tote bags, and other items featuring exclusive artwork by up-and-coming creators. These items depict beloved characters from Studio Ghibli’s works, as well as logos created for the collaboration. Fans won’t want to miss grabbing these unique items!

 

 

Details on the Previous HARAJUKU COLLECTIVE Pop-Up Store: https://www.moshimoshi-nippon.jp/ja/625747

Starting March 4, the permanent museum teamLab Forest Fukuoka will transform its artwork into a stunning spring theme. Guests will be able to enjoy gorgeous cherry blossoms for a limited time, and starting March 24, the Catching and Collecting Forest will also be transformed in the same way.

 

TeamLab’s works are created in real time by procedural generation, meaning that they are always changing and evolving. Each work changes depending on the season.

▼Starting March 4

Both Shifting Valley, Living Creatures of Flowers, Symbiotic Lives – A Whole Year per Year and Animals of Flowers, Symbiotic Lives II – A Whole Year per Year are only available to see during spring. Come and see animals made entirely of cherry blossoms as they roam through the museum!

The work titled Soft Terrain in Granular Topography shows multicolored grains of light pouring from the sky, while Flutter of Butterflies, Ephemeral Life surrounds visitors with brightly colored butterflies

 

▼Starting March 24

In the Catching and Collecting Forest, visitors can explore with their smartphones and catch various animals made entirely of cherry blossoms.

The Tokyo-based girl artists and creators' collective bala has finally launched for real! The group will release its first single barla on March 8.   bala consists of MANON, SUNNY ONLY 1, DAN, and KANO, each with their own global background. The project aims to resonate with Gen Z youth culture and to be a collective of artists that connects hybrid Japanese pop culture with audiences around the world.   The debut song barla was produced by Shinichi Osawa, who has numerous hits under the name Mondo Grosso. It was co-written by Kenmochi Hidefumi from Wednesday Campanella. With Y2K culture making a comeback around the world, the track features the house sound popular in the late 90s which is showing signs of becoming the next musical trend yet again. The groovy dance tune is a perfect theme song for these girls who will lead the next generation of pop culture.   <Comment from Shinichi Osawa> “I’m honored to be involved in bala’s debut. The members are super unique, and collaborating with Kenmochi-san for the first time was a dream come true.”   <Comment from Kenmochi Hidefumi> “I’m happy to be able to work with the members of bala and Shinichi Osawa. Everyone is so uniquely talented, and this song is filled with everyone's energy and excitement inspired by their long-awaited debut!”  

Atarashii Gakko! will hold solo concerts at Zepp venues in Tokyo and Osaka in April and May of 2023.   These performances will be held almost a year after the girls held their solo concert at Zepp DiverCity in Tokyo last May. This year’s events will be held at Zepp Osaka Bayside on April 30 and Zepp Shinjuku in Tokyo on May 2.   ATARASHII GAKKO! - HANAKO (Official Music Video)

ATARASHII GAKKO! - Pineapple Kryptonite (Official Music Video)

Art collective teamLab has opened a new solo exhibition at the Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn, Estonia. One of the largest museums in all of Scandinavia, the exhibition will run through May 7, 2023, and guests can also enjoy a large amount of Estonian art from the 18th century onward. In 2008, the Kumu Art Museum won the European Museum Forum award for the Best Museum in Europe. 

teamLab - Impermanent Flowers Floating in a Continuous Sea

 teamLab: Impermanent Flowers Floating in a Continuous Sea depicts flowers that are continuously growing and dying, multiplying in an eternal sea in which everything is connected. Guests can feel as though they've become one with the art as they stroll through the exhibition. 

 Black Waves: Immersive Mass is made up of interconnected waves. Without a beginning or an end, visitors progress through the workspace until they too are drawn into the water.   Waves in classical East Asian art are often represented by sets of lines, but these detailed waves are unique.

teamLab - Black Waves: Immersive Mass ©teamLab

 In Black Waves: Immersive Mass, flowers can be seen blooming, blossoming, and seeing the end of their lives. When people touch the flowers, they wither and die.

teamLab - Proliferating Immense Life ©teamlab

  The flicker of flame will welcome guests to this part of the museum. Visitors can even take the work home by approaching it with the Distributed Fire app on their smartphones. When held up to another person’s smartphone, the flames will connect and grow larger. teamLab continues to find ways to connect people through modern experimental artworks. What will they create next?

 teamLab - Universe of Fire Particles ©teamLab

 

Kumu Art Museum -  Photo: Tõnu Tunnel. (Courtesy of the Art Museum of Estonia.)

 

 Come dive into the world of teamLab in the frosty north!

The art collective TeamLab will hold the TeamLab Fukuyama Castle Festival of Light event at Fukuyama Castle in Hiroshima Prefecture from December 2, 2022 to January 29, 2023. The exhibition will transform the stone walls, the tower, and the outside of the iconic castle, which is currently celebrating its 400th anniversary. Light art will transform the space in different ways depending on the number of guests and the weather. 

In August 2022, Fukuyama Castle recieved a major restoration with iron paneling installed on the north side, the only such restorative technique used on a Japanese castle to date. As guests walk around the keep, the included musical experience will change according to your walking speed and pace.

teamLab <Castle Tower> 

The stone walls of Fukuyama Castle will depict animals shaped by flowers as they continuously die and are reborn. When guests touch the flowers, they disperse; if they continue to touch and the flowers disperse too much, the animal dies and disappears.   Built during the Edo period, the castle survived the Meiji Restoration but was damaged heavily in WWII.

teamLab <Animals of Flowers, Symbiotic Lives in the Stone Wall>

  Ovoids made of light sit at the bottom of the castle. When pushed by a person or blown by the wind, these unique creations will change color and interact with the nearly ovoids, which will change to the same color and make a similar tone.

teamLab <Resisting and Resonating Ovoids on the Stones of Oblivion>

  In the Sketch Generals section, visitors can draw historical warlords associated with Fukuyama Castle, including Katsunari Mineno, the first lord of the Fukuyama domain and builder of Fukuyama Castle, Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, Nagamasa Kuroda, Ieyasu Tokugawa, and Masahiro Abe. When the generals are touched, famous quotes appear in speech bubbles!   In addition, visitors can turn their own drawings of generals into pins that they can take home as souvenirs!

teamLab <Sketch Generals>

teamLab <Sketch Factory>

  Several other works will be exhibited around the castle during the event as well.  The castle tower was designated a National Treasure in the early Showa era but was destroyed by fire in an air raid during World War II. It was rebuilt in 1966.  teamLab's Digitized City project has become popular across the world, allowing the art collective to utilize real-world locales to display artworks without damaging or altering the location chosen.   With its lengthy history, Fukuyama Castle is a magnificent canvas, transforming as both visitors and nature interact with the lights. People, animals, nature, and art can live side by side, without boundaries. Wouldn't you like to come to visit this winter?

teamLab <Walk, Walk, Walk -Fukuyama Castle>

  ©チームラボ