Osaka’s Botanical Garden Is an Interactive Playground at Night

teamLab, Resonating Microcosms in the Common Camellia Garden – Solidified Light Color, Dusk to Dawn © teamLab

With a blend of stunning nature and vibrant city life, Osaka is already pretty magical. However, international art collective teamLab is bringing even more wonder to the area with its permanent installation at Nagai Botanical Garden. The exhibition is an open-air museum at night, showcasing enchanting artworks that incorporate the plants, lake, and other natural ecosystems in the 240,000-square-meter (almost 2.6-million-square-foot) park.

Nagai Botanical Garden first opened in 1974 and has since become the home to 1,200 plant species and countless wild birds, including Northern goshawks and owls. teamLab Botanical Garden Osaka is part of teamLabs’s Digitized Nature project, which explores how technology can turn nature into art without harming it. Each installation changes with the environment—shaped by the wind, rain, and the movements of visitors—so that both people and the surrounding nature become integral to the artwork itself.

“As the artworks in this exhibition are influenced by the trees and birds that live in the garden, if the wildlife disappear, the artworks will also disappear,” explains teamLab. “The trees and birds cannot be separated from the ecosystem such as the garden’s forest or lake, so if the environment is not sustained, the trees and birds will cease to exist, and as a consequence, the artworks as well. The artworks’ existence is not defined by their physical surface boundaries, but is continuous and ambiguous with its surrounding environment.”

One installation, titled Sculptures of Dissipative Birds in the Wind, captures the continuous flow and dissipation of energy through the movement of flying birds. In the work, the motion of the birds and the surrounding wind are reflected in real time, creating a spiraling artwork that constantly transforms before the viewer’s eyes.

Another piece, called Forest of Autonomous Resonating Life – Eucalyptus, features a cluster of glowing, egg-shaped installations in Eucalyptus Park. The illuminated forms react to their surroundings, toppling when touched by visitors or blown by the wind. As they slowly rise again, their colors shift, turning the whole space into an interactive, multisensory experience.

Check out photos from teamLab’s exhibition at Nagai Botanical Garden in Osaka below. To learn more or purchase tickets, head over to to the official website of teamLab Botanical Garden Osaka.

Tokyo-based art collective teamLab has transformed Nagai Botanical Garden in Osaka into an interactive playground.

teamLab, Resonating Microcosms in the Common Camellia Garden – Liquified Light Color, Dusk to Dawn © teamLab

The exhibition is an open-air museum at night, showcasing enchanting artworks that incorporate the park’s plants and wildlife.

teamLab, Floating Resonating Lamps on Oike Lake © teamLab

Each installation responds to the wind, rain, and movement of visitors, making people and nature part of the artwork.

teamLab, Forest of Autonomous Resonating Life – Eucalyptus © teamLab

teamLab, Sculptures of Dissipative Birds in the Wind © teamLab

teamLab, Pillars that Dance with the Wind © teamLab

See the installations in action below.

teamLab: Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by teamLab.
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