Japanese gardens are no stranger to all things aesthetic. But did you ever hear of their greens turning into living art? A digital art collective of the Asian nation is making this a temporary reality, courtesy a psychedelic, kaleidoscopic open-air art exhibition at the Kairakuen Garden. Here’s all we know about it. By Bayar Jain
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With all things taking the digital route these days, the creatively-bent Japanese have found a unique way to carve the same path in their gardens as well. Art collective teamLab, along with the help of their advanced technology systems, will be turning Japan’s Kairakuen Garden in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture into a living artwork from February 13 to March 21, 2021. As per their official website, the Digitized Nature art project—as it is being called—wishes to explore how nature can become art using non-material digital technology, without harming it.
The interactive display thus created will feature over 3,000 plum trees in full bloom, a spectacle signature to the Mito Plum Blossom Festival held during the same time. This concurrently-held festival ordinarily includes guided park tours, musical performances, candlelit plum blossom walks, and a fireworks display. This time, the 19th-century park will also include digital projections on the garden’s landscapes, all of which will morph when visitors stroll through the greens.
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The website also notes that societal perceptions and understandings of forms and shapes have been moulded by time owing to human-nature interaction, and therefore is bound by one’s lifespan. Humans, the artists note, cannot recognise time longer than their own lives. Therefore, to understand this long duration of time, the artists believe that one can explore these boundaries via these shapes of nature.
Whether you’re an art lover or not, this ancient garden is worth exploring, nonetheless. Created during the Edo Period in 1842, the landscape is centred around a pond with hundreds of plum tree varieties standing tall around. The garden—designated as a Special Place of Scenic Beauty—is considered one of Japan’s three great gardens (Kenrokuen Garden in Kanazawa, and Korakuen Garden in Okayama being the other two).
Entry to the garden is JPY 1,500 (INR 1,058) for adults, JPY 800 (INR 564) for students, and free for children below the age of 12.
Related: For The First Time Ever, Japan’s Ozu Castle Is Inviting Guests To Stay Overnight
Bayar Jain
Senior Content Manager
Equipped with a degree in Sociology (Honours) from the University of Delhi, and a post graduate diploma in English Journalism and Mass Communication from Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai, Bayar enjoys sharing stories of people, places, and different cultures. When not typing her travel tales, you can catch the hobbyist photographer capturing the next frame, dabbling in arts and crafts, or gushing over puppers and kittens.
