teamLab Bio Vortex Kyoto

teamLab Biovortex Kyoto, one of teamLab’s groundbreaking museums, continues the collective’s tradition of creating fully immersive art experiences where creativity comes alive. Through cutting-edge technologies - blending interactive elements with projections, lights, and sounds - the museum transforms art into something that can be felt, moved through, and even reshaped by its visitors.

Built on teamLab’s philosophy of dissolving boundaries - between art and viewer, among different art forms, and between the museum and the world outside - Biovortex offers a seamless integration of art and environment. Here, art is never static; it is alive, responsive, and transformative. The installations shift and evolve in real time, reacting to visitors’ movements and actions to create a space that feels deeply personal and engaging.

Some exhibits invite guests to walk barefoot through shallow water or interact with floating spheres of light, turning passive observation into a tactile, sensory journey. Because the artworks are continuously changing in response to human presence, every visit is unique, and the audience themselves become co-creators of the experience.

Artworks

In teamLab’s world, sculptures appear to float free from the pull of gravity. Neither falling to the ground nor rising to the ceiling, they exist in a state of ambiguity - fragmented yet capable of merging into larger forms. Though resistant to direct force, they yield effortlessly to something as subtle as a breath of air, bending the familiar rules of physics. These sculptural entities are not solid matter but patterns of energy shaped by their environment.

The artworks often evoke cosmic imagery, placing visitors in spaces that feel like drifting among the stars or witnessing the birth of the universe. Made of light and atmosphere, they exist because they are perceived, immersing the audience in phenomena that feel both infinite and ephemeral. Some installations suggest journeys to other planets through sound and light, while others transport visitors into microscopic realms - molecular and cellular landscapes, or environments magnified so that they are experienced as if one were the size of an insect, or soaring with the perspective of a bird. 

At the heart of these experiences is the visitor, not merely surrounded by art but becoming its very core. The installations respond to presence and movement, shaping themselves around the individual until the visitor is no longer just an observer but the central element of the work itself. As boundaries dissolve and the real world fades away, the artwork unfolds in three dimensions, existing in relation to the person within it. Even as people move through the space, the piece continues to evolve, with the visitor integrated as a living part of its creation.

Other works turn toward existential themes, exploring the cycle of life and death. Flowers bloom and wither in dazzling displays of light, symbolising renewal and impermanence. Inspiration also comes from history, with pieces paying homage to figures such as the 18th-century Japanese artist Itō Jakuchū, reimagining his vision through digital forms.

In these environments, art is alive, immersive, and endlessly transformative, offering a glimpse into worlds both vast and microscopic, cosmic and human.

Experiencing Physical Activity – Athletics Forest

Athletics Forest is a space where art and movement come together, inviting visitors to use their whole bodies in playful, energetic ways. Unlike traditional exhibitions, these installations require physical activity, turning exploration into an athletic challenge. Especially popular with younger visitors, the artworks encourage jumping, balancing, and coordination while also offering lessons about nature and its hidden processes.

Jumping Activity Highlights

Rapidly Rotating Bouncing Spheres – Caterpillar House: Inside this playful space, visitors find themselves surrounded by fast-spinning spheres. Jumping on them stops their rotation, transforming the room with each movement. Bounce on spheres of the same color in sequence, and they pop, scattering particles of light. Continue, and caterpillars are born. Persist until the end, and the entire room fills with them - each jump creating new bursts of art and life.

Multi Jumping Universe: Here, the ground reacts to every leap, sinking underfoot to create ripples that pull in stardust and form stars. Jump onto a star, and it begins to move; keep bouncing, and the star grows, allowing visitors to witness its entire life cycle. In this installation, play becomes cosmic creation.

Climbing Activity Highlights

Aerial Climbing through a Flock of Coloured Birds: This installation invites visitors to climb through a forest of colourful bars suspended from the ceiling and linked together to form aerial routes. Each path is different, so every climb offers a unique experience shaped by the chosen route. As participants move along the bars, they light up and emit sounds specific to their colours - creating a living symphony of light and tone that changes with every climber. At the same time, flocks of digital birds fly freely throughout the space, surrounding visitors as they climb. The interplay of movement, sound, and light transforms the activity into more than just physical exercise: it becomes a soaring journey where people and birds share the same sky.

Balancing Activity Highlights

Balance Stepping Stones in the Invisible World invite visitors to test their balance while interacting with a living artwork. Each stone wobbles uniquely underfoot and emits colours and tones that ripple through the surrounding space. As visitors step, the colours of the stones are transmitted to a microscopic world within the installation. Tiny creatures come to life, moving across the environment and creating intricate, lively, and ever-changing patterns. Every step contributes to a dynamic ecosystem, turning balance and movement into a playful act of creation.

Sliding Activity Highlights

Sliding through the Fruit Field turns play into a lively act of creation. Visitors become beams of sunlight, gliding down slopes and colliding with bouncing water droplets or buzzing bees. Each impact sets off a chain reaction: the energy transferred from the body sends the droplets and bees flying, which in turn stimulates the growth of fruit throughout the field. Every slide transforms movement into a playful, interactive spectacle, where visitors’ actions directly shape a vibrant, ever-changing environment.

Waterfall Droplets, Flowing Down a Slope: In this installation, countless water droplets cascade down a slope, behaving as single bouncing spheres when isolated but flowing like liquid when gathered together. Visitors can climb the hill alongside the slope, and as they step, the droplets near their feet absorb energy, breaking apart into individual bouncing droplets. This playful interaction transforms a simple slope into a dynamic, ever-changing scene where movement and presence shape the flow of water itself.

Future Park – An Educational Project

Future Park is an educational project based on the concept of collaborative creativity. This child-oriented project is especially popular among young visitors.

In 'Sketch Ocean', visitors become creators of a digital ocean. By colouring and drawing ocean creatures, they bring their designs to life: each creation is scanned and transferred into a vibrant, immersive digital ocean that surrounds the visitors. Once released into the virtual waters, the creatures swim alongside fish drawn by others, creating a lively, collaborative ecosystem. Visitors can interact with their creations further by touching them in the ocean or feeding them using digital food bags, making each experience playful, dynamic, and uniquely personal.

'Graffiti Nature' is another interactive ecosystem created by visitors. By drawing animals on paper, participants bring them to life in a digital world, where they eat, are eaten, multiply, or disappear - just like in nature. Flowers bloom when people stand still and scatter when they walk, making every movement part of the environment.

In ‘Sketch Factory’, the creatures visitors create in ‘Graffiti Nature’ or ‘Sketch Ocean’ can be transformed into items such as badges, magnets, puzzles, hand towels, T-shirts, tote bags, and paper crafts - which can then be taken home.

Another favourite among children is the interactive art centred on tiny inhabitants, brought to life in the Little People Interactive Installations. Visitors can enter the whimsical world of tiny inhabitants through several interactive installations.

In 'A Musical Wall Where Little People Live', stamps of mushrooms, barns, or ice sticks placed on the wall appear in the little people’s world, bringing it to life. In 'A Table Where Little People Live', visitors place objects on a table, and the little people slide, jump, and climb across them - reacting even to a visitor’s hand. In 'A Window to the Universe Where Little People Live', drawing lines with a light pen or stamping shapes influences the little people in playful ways: yellow lines make them bounce and fly, blue lines speed them up, and so on.

Across these installations, visitors don’t just observe - they become co-creators, experimenting with movement, cause and effect, and imagination in a vibrant miniature universe.

Admission Fees: Adult ticket prices use a variable pricing system, meaning the cost varies depending on the date and time of your visit.

Please note: Tickets purchased at the venue include an additional JPY 200 fee on top of the online price.