Inside teamLab’s vast new interactive art museum in Abu Dhabi

teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi, a museum devoted to the interactive art of the Japanese collective teamLab, has opened in the UAE capital. It is the second art institution to open in the long-discussed Saadiyat Cultural District.

“It is a sensory museum based on a philosophy that intertwines art, technology and nature,” said the chairman of Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism, Mohammed Khalifa Al Mubarak, at the museum’s opening. Unlike a conventional museum, it is formed not of a collection but of a series of digitally enabled experiences revolving around the idea of nature. Huge, mirrored rooms reflect and refract swarms of butterflies that flit across the walls, while streaks of light move upwards onto columns. In one water-based installation, small floating objects light up as another bounces across them; in another room tornadoes of silver balloons swivel around visitors.

The global branding director of teamLab, Takashi Kudo, said his collective aimed to create “new forms of perception”, adding that their “art expands the way we see the world”.

teamLab, which were established in 2001, have a number of spaces across Asia and one in the Middle East, in Jeddah. All of them are highly popular attractions.

The 17,000 sq. m teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi is their first bespoke site. It was designed by the Abu Dhabi-based MZ Architects,who are best known for the property development group Aldar’s headquarters—a large circular building on the Sheikh Zayed Road that is a local landmark. (Al Mubarak, the chairman of the DCT, is also the chairman of Aldar.) teamLab Phenomena was built in concert with the collective’s installations, allowing the company, which has around 1,000 staff, to fully incorporate the site’s architecture into their planning.

The museum is a joint venture by teamLab, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT) and Miral, Abu Dhabi’s main tourist attraction developer. Miral’s portfolio also includes Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi, Ferrari World and Yas Waterworld, and the organisation shares a chair with the DCT—Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak.

teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi’s white, curvaceous structure of is the first to be seen from the approach to Saadiyat from the main Abu Dhabi Island, and its inauguration is the first milestone in a busy year for the district. The Saadiyat Cultural District was announced in 2006 with a plan for five museums, later winnowed down to three: the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and Zayed National Museum. After a series of delays, in 2017 the Louvre Abu Dhabi opened, and momentum subsequently picked up. In 2022, DCT announced the plans for two new museums, which were later revealed to be teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi and the forthcoming Natural History Museum.

All are now due to be open within the next 12 months: the Zayed National Museum and the Natural History Museum will launch at the end of 2025, and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi at the beginning of 2026. Al Mubarak also mentioned the possibility of further institutions or a performing arts centre joining the cultural district later.

teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi sits midway between being an art institution and a set of installations with entertainment value, and underscores both Saadiyat Cultural District’s interest in digital art and its role as a tourism destination. As Abu Dhabi diversifies its economy, both tourism and the creative economy are major new investment streams. According to figures supplied by DCT, tourism accounted for 9% of GDP last year and the emirate hopes to reach 13–14% for the coming year. It further aims to add 55,000 new jobs in the creative industries by 2030. Many of these will associated with the museum district as well as with hubs such as MiZa, the cultural neighbourhood that is being set up in the city’s former port area of Mina Zayed, across the water from Saadiyat.

The museum demonstrates the Saadiyat Cultural District’s interest in exploring digital art, but it will also function as an attraction for locals and tourists.

teamLab also has a particular link to Abu Dhabi: Kudo spent time as a child in the emirate when his father worked for the Abu Dhabi oil company. Al Mubarak says that he happened to sit next to Kudo at one of the editions of Culture Summit, the capital’s annual discursive event devoted to cultural matters, and learned by chance of his connection. According to Al Mubarak, Kudo told him of the impact of waking up early in the desert, with nature coming alive in bits and pieces—an inspiration, he says, that remains in the teamLab projects today.