THE WORLD OF IRREVERSIBLE CHANGE

Pace presents an exhibition by teamLab. The show will spotlight a single interactive digital artwork projected on a wall in the gallery. This presentation marks teamLab’s first solo exhibition in New York in ten years.

May 10 - August 16, 2024

Founded by Toshiyuki Inoko in Tokyo in 2001, teamLab is an international collective of artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians, and architects. Known for its multisensory, immersive work, teamLab explores the relationships between humans and the world, encouraging new modes of perception through its pioneering, technologically advanced installations.

In the upcoming exhibition at Pace in New York, The World of Irreversible Change will be projected on a large, freestanding, black-painted wall in a darkened gallery space. First presented by the collective in spring 2022 at the Aomori Museum of Art in Japan, this screen-based work, created by teamLab over five years, has never before been exhibited as a projection.

Animated figures move throughout the panoramic village scene, which will change with the time of day and weather in New York. Scenery and stories will unfold each day, and the lives of the people in the city will continue eternally unless gallery visitors interact with the work, causing permanent disruption.

Over the course of its exhibition at Pace, The World of Irreversible Change can transform as a result of viewers’ engagement with it. If visitors continue to intervene with the work during its three-month presentation, the scenes of daily life will become increasingly agitated and chaotic, with fighting between individuals escalating into an all-out war.

Peace and harmony will give way to fire and destruction, a devolution that speaks to the inherency and universality of violence in the human experience. The city will become forever devoid of people, while plants will begin populating its streets and ruins over time.

“After a while, new flora begin to grow in the burnt ruins of the city. The flora grow, bloom, and scatter repeatedly, changing daily with the real passage of time ... Once the world of this artwork begins to burn, the world from before can never be returned to. The people who interact with the artwork cause this outcome.”