artLIVE – Multi-sensory exhibitions are becoming a defining trend in contemporary art, reflecting an interdisciplinary mindset and a growing need for deeper connections between people, space, technology, and emotion.
In a world saturated with visual imagery, audiences are increasingly yearning for experiences that go beyond “just looking”. This is where multisensory exhibitions emerge — designed to awaken sight, sound, touch, smell, and even emotion, offering a more immersive encounter with art. Below are six internationally acclaimed multisensory exhibitions you shouldn’t miss.
1. teamLab Planets
Located in Toyosu (Tokyo), teamLab Planets is one of the pioneering interactive digital exhibitions created by the art collective teamLab. The space is designed to allow visitors to fully immerse themselves in rooms filled with water, dazzling lights, mirrors, and real flowers.
Guests walk barefoot through surreal reflective environments where LED lights move with every step, making them part of a vibrant, living artwork. One of the most striking installations is “Floating in the Falling Universe of Flowers”, a room where visitors can lie back and be surrounded by a constantly falling cosmos of flowers.
As of 2023, teamLab Planets has welcomed over 2 million visitors annually. The exhibition has frequently been listed as a “must-see art destination” by major publications including TimeOut, CNN, Forbes, and Dezeen.
2. Van Gogh Alive – The Experience
Van Gogh Alive is a globally renowned multi-sensory exhibition initiated by Australian art organization Grande Experiences. Since its debut in 2011, it has been held in over 80 cities worldwide, making it the most commercially and publicly successful exhibition about the Dutch master. Using the proprietary SENSORY4™ technology, the exhibition projects over 3,000 works by Vincent Van Gogh across walls, columns, ceilings, and even floors. The immersive visuals are synchronized with classical music by Handel, Bach, Barber, and others, as well as evocative scents, allowing visitors to step into the environments that once inspired Van Gogh — from fruit orchards in Arles to the wheat fields of Saint-Rémy.
The space is designed as a complete symphony of the senses — massive imagery engulfs every surface, paired with classical music that flows in harmony with Van Gogh’s brushstrokes. Visitors are then guided through layers of scent — cypress, nutmeg, cedarwood, vetiver — further deepening the emotional experience. Some editions also include a culinary extension, where guests can enjoy dishes inspired by Van Gogh’s works, such as “Sunflowers” or “The Poet’s Garden.”
The artworks are curated chronologically, reflecting Van Gogh’s emotional and artistic journey: from the dark earth tones of his early Dutch years, through the vivid brilliance of Paris, to the hallucinatory visions and brief peace of Saint-Rémy.
With over 9 million visitors worldwide, Van Gogh Alive has become a landmark in immersive art. It is also widely used by schools and educational organizations as a visual learning tool for subjects like art, psychology, and history.
3. Meow Wolf
Meow Wolf is a renowned immersive art collective and interactive exhibition series in the United States, originating from an artist community in Santa Fe. It has since expanded into a large-scale immersive art brand with locations in Las Vegas, Denver, Dallas, and upcoming venues in New York and Los Angeles. Each site functions as a self-contained universe with its own storyline, distinct design, and multi-sensory experiences that transcend the boundaries of traditional museums.
Here, visitors don’t just observe — they live within the art: opening a refrigerator might lead to another dimension, crawling through a washing machine could take you to an alien world, and glowing doors might unlock forgotten memories.
Highlight installations include:
- Omega Mart (Las Vegas): A surreal supermarket where familiar-looking products carry strange meanings, and each aisle opens up new portals to alternate realities.
- Convergence Station (Denver): A convergence of four interwoven worlds, featuring light tunnels, intergalactic buses, and a digital memory archive.
- House of Eternal Return (Santa Fe): A mysterious family house filled with dozens of rooms constructed with light, sound, and interactive art.
Since the debut of “House of Eternal Return” in Santa Fe in 2016, Meow Wolf has expanded its reach and now draws over 3 million visitors annually across its venues. It also leads the way in supporting more than 500 local artists in the U.S. and is studied in university programs focused on experimental art, game design, and narrative storytelling.
4. Sensory Odyssey
Sensory Odyssey is a multi-sensory exhibition hosted by the ArtScience Museum – Marina Bay Sands, created by Sensory Odyssey Studio (France) in collaboration with the French National Museum of Natural History. Its first edition debuted in Paris in 2021 and was brought to Singapore in 2023 as part of its grand Asian premiere.
The exhibition guides visitors through seven major natural environments – from the African desert and the Amazon rainforest to underground caves, the deep ocean, and the Arctic. These immersive worlds are brought to life with ultra high-definition 8K video, surround sound, and custom-designed scents.
Each setting is rendered so vividly that visitors can hear chirping crickets and beetles, smell damp earth and forest mist, feel the hum of bees and gentle rainfall, and inhale the scent of the deep sea as if swimming among whales.
The Paris edition (2021) was completely sold out for the first six months, and the 2023 Singapore showcase was hailed as a major event in the region. The exhibition was named one of the Top 10 interactive science education experiences in Europe and was highly praised by the French Museum of Natural History and environmental conservation organizations for its powerful role in raising public awareness about the natural world.
5. Dreamed Japan – Images of the Floating World
Dreamed Japan – Images of the Floating World is a digital light exhibition created by the French art studio Danny Rose, which made a significant impact at both Atelier des Lumières (Paris) and Infinity des Lumières (Dubai). Inspired by the world of ukiyo-e (浮世絵 – “pictures of the floating world”), the exhibition recreates Edo-period Japan through an immersive 360-degree environment filled with animated visuals, traditional music, and mesmerizing meditative effects.
Visitors are immersed in a dreamlike journey through Hokusai’s great wave, flickering geishas, bamboo forests, cherry blossoms, paper fans, and moonlit boats — all vividly projected onto the walls, ceiling, and floor, creating the sensation of floating within an endless Eastern reverie.
The music blends traditional Japanese drums and folk instruments with Western classical pieces such as Debussy’s La Mer, reflecting an artistic dialogue between East and West. Masterpieces by Hokusai, Utamaro, Kuniyoshi, and others seem to be “awakened” after centuries, moving with a gentle fluidity enhanced by emotive light effects.
The exhibition has been held at Atelier des Lumières (Paris) and Infinity des Lumières (Dubai), two of the world’s most renowned digital art centers, drawing over 500,000 visitors annually. It is one of the rare projects that brings Japanese ukiyo-e to global audiences in a contemporary form, helping to redefine East Asian aesthetics in 21st-century visual art.
6. Gustav Klimt – The Immersive Experience
One of the pioneering exhibitions in the global immersive art movement, Gustav Klimt – The Immersive Experience invites viewers into the golden, mystical, and sensual world of Austrian master Gustav Klimt—an iconic figure of the Art Nouveau movement at the turn of the 20th century.
The exhibition reimagines Klimt’s most renowned works—The Kiss, Judith, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, and more—through 360-degree projection technology, classical music, and cinematic motion effects, offering an immersive journey through every brushstroke.
A signature feature of the show is its gold-drenched environment, replicating Klimt’s celebrated “Golden Phase,” where each step feels like wandering through a fairytale kingdom of painting.
Premiering at the Atelier des Lumières in Paris in 2018, the exhibition quickly became one of Europe’s most iconic immersive art showcases, attracting over 1 million visitors in its first year. It has since expanded to over 15 countries, reaching major cities like New York, Antwerp, Milan, Brussels, London, and Berlin, with global attendance surpassing 5 million by 2024.
Reference
teamLab Planets
Tokyo Daily Sunb
Business Inside
Meow Wolf
Sensory Odyssey
Digital Art House
