TeamLab Phenomena: A Guide to the Newest Phenomenon in Saadiyat Island

The Saadiyat Cultural District in Saadiyat Island is one of the best destinations in Abu Dhabi. The name says it all, as it features architectural masterpieces (e.g., Louvre Abu Dhabi) and cultural treasures (e.g., Abrahamic Family House). It is also adjacent to an exclusive beachside community (i.e., Mamsha Al Saadiyat), with a lovely promenade lined with lovely restaurants and cafés overlooking expansive sea views.

In April 2025, the District became even better with the addition of teamLab Phenomena Artworks to its attractions.

The Phenomena at teamLab

teamLab Phenomena is a mood. It’s not a mere destination but an experience. As the name suggests, it is a place where you can observe and become part of life-like artistic creations: teamLab phenomena.

Phenomena are existences arising from the elements of air, water, or light. They are shaped by their unique environment and distinct (and free) from the materials that have, traditionally, bound and borne art.

They are artworks, but unlike traditional works of art, phenomena at teamLab are immersive. On your visit, they engulf you, but your presence changes them.

Phenomena are ambiguous and continuous, part of, dependent on, and sustained by their environment. You can destroy them, but the phenomena will continue to exist as long as their environment is maintained.

The Areas at teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi

There are five major areas at this immersive Abu Dhabi art museum. The most prominent are the Dry Area and the Water Area.

Dry Area

Visit the Dry Area for immersive artwork experiences that exist in an environment of light, sound, and motion. The Dry Area and the Water Area are the most prominent sections.

● Morphing Continuum: The Morphing Continuum is a High Order Sculpture, a single, amorphous mass suspended mid-air, continually morphing and reforming. You can break it by immersing yourself in it, but the continuum naturally restores itself.

● Levitation Void: The Levitation Void is a dark void that arises from and is based on the order of energy. Levitation is its natural state. It's soft, flexible, and life-like. Push it down to the ground, and it will rise again and right itself.

● Spontaneous Order in Chaos: Thousands of individual, colorful strokes form a single entity, an illusion of three-dimensionality projected on a two-dimensional plane.

● Light Sculpture - Flow: It’s a light vortex. It’s the same light, but the direction (flowing continuously from the outside to the inside and from the inside to the outside) creates a distinguishable difference.

● Obverse and Reverse: This artwork is a colorful round portal that looks like a colorless light membrane on the flip side.

● Absolute Front Torus: This is a three-dimensional existence. It always appears to be facing you, even if you view it from the sides.

● Wind Form: This sculpture of wind, formed by a continuum of countless interacting particles, exists in the same space as your body. It conforms to the space and your presence.

● Waves: The artwork envelops you and exists in the same space as your body, creating continuously flowing waves that you can interact with.

● Biocosmos: It’s a symphony that mimics the movement of countless birds.

● Circulating Universe of Water Particles: Countless interacting particles, existing in the same space as your body, incessantly flow to interact with you and each other.

● Flutter of Butterflies: Immerse yourself in a space where every touch on the walls and floor gives rise to butterfly flutters and moves the entire artwork.

● Graffiti Nature and Beating Earth: It’s an ecosystem. You draw creatures, they come to life, and they eat and multiply or get eaten and perish.

● Autonomous Abstraction: A space filled with colorful dots, each one autonomous with a color-changing cycle all its own.

Water Area

The Water Area exhibits artworks born out of light, sound, and water. Expect to go barefoot in shallow pools.

● Continuous Trajectories in Flux and Form: Trajectories in constant flux fill and transform the space and envelope you.

● Floating Microcosms: Interact with the soft and flexible sculptures afloat in the water.

● The Accumulation of Time: Over time, the water level changes and alters the shape of the colorful “land masses.” This artwork is temporarily closed.

● Megaliths in the Roots Garden: Explore a garden where the roots of the trees lie exposed, as if suspended in the air.

● Waterfall of Light Particles: Colorful, shining particles stream down in bright lines to the shallow pool of water below, creating the illusion of a real waterfall.

Other Areas

The Entrance is an experience unto itself, with the Living Crystallized Light phenomena. The Lamp Tea House provides tranquil experiences born out of the intersection of art, nature, and technology.

After experiencing the various teamLab phenomena, visit Anko for Japanese wagashi pastry and art that tastes as good as it looks. Visit the Sketch Factory to get souvenirs made out of the creatures you drew at Graffiti Nature and Beating Earth.

Phenomena That Draw You In

teamLab Phenomena is a place unlike any other. Here, you experience art, but your presence also shapes and transforms the artwork.