Gallery AaMo, a gallery combining art and entertainment, opened in Tokyo Dome City on April 15th. The "A" in AaMo stands for Art and Amusement, and "aMo" stands for "and More." Targeting people in their 20s and 30s, the gallery rotates its events every one to three months, showcasing everything from cutting-edge media art to crafts and subculture. The opening event, held on the 15th and 16th, featured a preview and six performances of "phosphere," a new dance installation by Rhizomatiks Research x ELEVENPLAY. This new entertainment content, created by Daito Manabe and Rhizomatiks Research, who gained significant attention for his role as chief technical director of the flag handover ceremony at the closing ceremony of the Rio Olympics, attracted much attention. Furthermore, this new work marks the first in two years, featuring a notable lineup of artists who began collaborating with Rhizomatiks in 2010, including choreographers and live performance directors for Perfume and BABYMETAL, as well as the overall director and choreographer for the closing ceremony of the recent Rio Olympics. These include MIKIKO and her dance company, ELEVENPLAY; Takayuki Fujimoto, a member of dum type who has been working on stage productions using LED lighting for a long time; and the sound producer for Cannes Lions-winning label evala. This dance performance, featuring cutting-edge lighting technology with numerous projectors and cutting-edge programming, differs from a typical stage performance in that each piece features eight dancers' choreography, directed toward a U-shaped audience seating area surrounding the stage. Sensors attached to the dancers synchronize with laser projections, while mirrors and wireframe cubic elements connect the dancers to the space, creating a calculated three-dimensional space in all directions. The installation showcased cutting-edge light manipulation techniques. Instead of relying on traditional digital technologies like VR, AR, and MR using drones and robotic arms, this new attempt to project the trajectory of a dancer's body movements in real time into a 3D image was based on the concepts of physicality and spatial design, which have been hotly debated in media art in recent years. This event points to a new direction for future stage performances and is likely to have an impact on fashion in the future. AaMo's upcoming exhibitions include the "Haikyu!!" exhibition from April 25th to May 28th, showcasing the stage sets and costumes from "Haikyu!!," a hyper-projection theater adaptation of the popular volleyball manga; and "TOKYO ART CITY," an experiential exhibition themed on Tokyo by NAKED, a creative group known for their projection mapping, from June 16th to September 3rd.

Rhizomatiks is also holding an event called "Rhizomatiks10" at Spiral Garden in Omotesando, Tokyo from April 19th to 30th, which looks back on the past 10 years and anticipates the next 10 years.

Text: Tatsuya Noda