Weekly News Roundup: January 26, 2024
By The Editors
teamLab, Bubble Universe: Physical Light, Bubbles of Light, Wobbling Light, and Environmental Light – One Stroke, 2023 (work in progress), interactive Installation, LED, sound. Courtesy teamLab and Pace Gallery.
New Venue for teamLab Borderless
Following the closure of its Tokyo–Odaiba location in 2022, teamLab Borderless is set to reopen on February 9 in the central Azabudai Hills development, where the American mega-gallery Pace is also slated to open this coming year. Known for constructing psychedelic, free-moving artworks, teamLab creates venues that offer large-scale light installations enhanced by technology, including interconnected reality and artificial intelligence. This latest venture will unveil new artworks such as Bubble Universe: Physical Light, Bubbles of Light, Wobbling Light, and Environmental Light – One Stroke (2023), an interactive installation consisting of LED lights in countless spheres that dim or shine depending on where visitors stand.
Still from SARAH MORRIS’s ETC 2023, feature-length film. Courtesy M+.
M+ Facade to Display New Commission
New York-based artist Sarah Morris’s feature-length film ETC (2023) will be displayed on the giant M+ Facade in Hong Kong every night from January 26 to March 17. Dually commissioned by M+ and Tai Kwun Contemporary, ETC was inspired by graphic designer Henry Steiner’s blueprint for Hong Kong’s first digital teller system, the HSBC Electronic Teller Card (held in the M+ Collections), symbolizing the city’s status as a financial hub. The film features Steiner, Japanese architect James H. Kinoshita (AIA Building, Central Tower), and Hong Kong starlet Josie Ho alongside iconic cityscapes, such as the HSBC headquarters and Sham Shui Po’s Electronic Market, fashioning a cinematic ode to Hong Kong’s architecture, culture, history, and people.
Digital rendering of the Serpentine Pavilion 2024, designed by Minsuk Cho, Mass Studies. Courtesy Serpentine Galleries.
Serpentine Pavilion Announces Architect
Mass Studies, a Seoul-based architectural firm helmed by Minsuk Cho, has been selected to design the 23rd Serpentine Pavilion, an annual platform in London’s Kensington Gardens that hosts art events throughout the summer. The pavilion typically hosts a cafe, but Cho’s star-shaped design, titled Archipelagic Void, will feature five “island” structures, including a tea house, library, and play tower; the last and largest of which will have netted walls. The design was inspired by courtyards in historic Korean homes, called madang, bringing attention to the five islands and their respective functions. The pavilion will be open from June 7 until October 27.
Portrait of PHILIPPE PARRENO, 2023. Courtesy Okayama Art Summit.
Philippe Parreno Appointed as Artistic Director
The Okayama Art Summit Executive Committee named Paris-based artist Philippe Parreno as artistic director of the fourth Okayama Art Summit in 2025. Parreno was born in Algeria in 1964 and is renowned for his multidisciplinary practice spanning film, drawing, installation, text, and performance. His recent exhibition, “Marilyn” at Munich’s Espace Louis Vuitton, displayed an eponymous video installation as well as a drawing series and a sculpture, highlighting his diverse oeuvre. First held in 2016, the Okayama Art Summit occurs every three years in various historic and cultural venues across Okayama city; the fourth edition is set to take place from September 26 to November 24, 2025.
Digital rendering of the new public square at Powerhouse Museum Ultimo. Courtesy Powerhouse Museum Ultimo.
Major Renovation at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum Ultimo
Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum Ultimo will undergo a major, AUD 250 million (USD 165 million) renovation beginning on February 5. The project is expected to take two to three years, during which time the museum will be closed to the public. Sponsored by the New South Wales government, the renovation will attempt to connect the museum to the city’s Central Business District, build a green public square, provide increased exhibition space, and restore the facades of the historic power station building. Beyond improving visitor circulation and offering more space for specialized exhibitions, the project will also support subsidized artist and education studios, as well as expand learning programs for local students.
Portrait of JESSICA CERASI (left) and MAYA EL KHALIL (right), 2023. Courtesy the Visual Arts Commission, National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Pavilion Names Curators
On January 23, the Visual Arts Commission of the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia announced that Abu Dhabi-based curator Jessica Cerasi, Oxford-based Lebanese curator Maya El Khalil, and Saudi assistant curator Shadin AlBulaihed will curate multidisciplinary artist Manal AlDowayan’s presentation at the 60th Venice Biennale in April. Co-curators Cerasi and El Khalil have both worked with AlDowayan on previous projects: Cerasi co-curated her participatory installation From Shattered Ruins, New Life Shall Bloom (2023) at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, while El Khalil has a longstanding relationship with AlDowayan, as she curated the artist’s first solo show in Saudi, A Journey of Belonging (2013).
