So much of what we have missed over the past 18 months or so is experiential events, being somewhere in the flesh and immersed. We’ve all tried our best, with online viewing rooms, print drops and gallery shows when it’s been safe, but there are those certain kinds of exhibitions that have to be done in person to get the full breadth of the artistic vision. The Tokyo-based art collective, teamLab, are the definition of this. Exclusively at the Asian Art Museum this summer, teamLab: Continuity (which was originally slated for 2020), will be the inaugural showcase of the new Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Pavilion, a major part of the AAM’s transformation and what will be San Francisco’s largest new art exhibition space.

 
And teamLab is a monumental start. The movement-sensitive space allows viewers to walk through the art, with each visitor having a completely unique immersion unto themselves. The digital animation is “derived from dynamic algorithms that react to visitors’ locations and movements within the interconnecting gallery space.” That has always been what has made teamLab’s work so special: what we want in this day and age are our own experiences, and yet the capability to share it with others simultaneously. “teamLab: Continuity is the perfect way to reintroduce our transformed museum to a City and a community that is learning all over again the joy of coming together for shared moments of wonder,” says Dr. Jay Xu, Barbara Bass Bakar Director and CEO of the Asian Art Museum, “Moments that ignite our imaginations while reflecting our own communal and ecological fragility and deep need for tenderness and hope.” —Evan Pricco