The Genealogy of Immersive Museums, from Panorama Halls to Atelier des Lumières and teamLab

In June 2026, “RÊVE DES LUMIÈRES,” heir to the lineage of Paris’s “Atelier des Lumières,” opened in Ariake, Tokyo, and on Saturday, October 24, “Impressionist Monet and Ukiyo-e” began at THE MOVEUM in Yokohama. Immersive museums that envelop spaces in images and sound may look like new facilities, but the idea of placing audiences inside a picture goes back to the panorama, patented in 1787. Using materials from museums, universities and organizers, this article traces that lineage, from panorama halls to video venues in industrial heritage sites, teamLab and immersive exhibitions of Japanese art.

Panorama halls: Standing inside a 360-degree painting

According to materials from the University of Edinburgh Library in the UK, the Irish-born painter Robert Barker (1739–1806) obtained a patent from King George III in June 1787 for the “panorama,” which showed views of nature in oil painting. The first panorama, it says, was a view of Edinburgh shown in Edinburgh in 1788.

From 1793, he showed works in the world’s first purpose-built panorama building, erected in Leicester Square in London (same source). According to an announcement print from that year in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art, the building was 90 feet in diameter, and the first panorama shown there depicted the British fleet assembled at Spithead in 1791. Admission was one shilling.

The “Panorama Mesdag” in The Hague, the Netherlands, carries this format into the present. The painter Hendrik Willem Mesdag painted it with assistants in four months, and it opened on August 1, 1881. On a canvas about 114.5 m around and about 14.6 m high, it depicts the beach and sea, the dunes and the old fishing village of Scheveningen in 1881.

An artificial dune is built at the center of the building, and visitors look out over the 360-degree painting from a viewing platform on top of it, recreating the view from what was then the highest dune in Scheveningen. The museum says it is the oldest panorama in the world still in its original location. In connecting the painted picture with the three-dimensional dune, and designing even where the audience stands, one can see an approach that leads to later immersive exhibitions.

Panorama halls in Meiji-era Tokyo, and spectacles projected with light

The panorama also reached Japan in the Meiji era. The Edo-Tokyo Museum holds a “Guide to the American Civil War Panorama” (Meiji 23, 1890) issued by the “Japan Panorama Hall” in Asakusa Park. The Koriyama City Museum of Art has a “Panorama Diagram for the Japan Panorama Hall’s Sino-Japanese War Painting” by Western-style painter Shotaro Koyama (1857–1916). Such materials suggest these were spectacles that let people experience scenes of wars in distant countries and of contemporary wars through entire buildings.

Around the same time, entertainment that projected images with light also enlivened amusement districts. According to an explanation of Osaka City’s cultural properties, the magic lantern, introduced in the late Edo period, gained popularity into the Meiji era, and in Osaka “nishiki-kage-e,” projected from behind onto washi paper screens, were staged. The lineage of projected images is traced in detail in our article on the history of projection mapping.

Enveloping quarries and foundries in images: Culturespaces’ “Lumières”

France’s Culturespaces has spread venues that envelop spaces in images to various countries with its “Lumières” series. According to a September 2025 announcement by TV Asahi, the company was founded in 1990, operates nine venues in five countries and has drawn more than 21.5 million visitors in total.

In Les Baux-de-Provence in southern France, a former quarry became a stage for images. According to the official website, the quarry, opened around 1800, closed in 1935 as demand for building materials fell. In 1959, Jean Cocteau filmed “Testament of Orpheus” there. The town entrusted its operation to Culturespaces as a public service delegation, and in March 2012, “Carrières des Lumières” opened with an exhibition on Gauguin and Van Gogh.

On April 13, 2018, “Atelier des Lumières” opened in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. The building is the “Chemin Vert foundry,” founded in 1835 by the Plichon brothers, which made cast-iron parts for the navy and railways. The business foundered in the Great Depression of 1929, and the company was dissolved in 1935. The factory covers 3,126 m², and in its opening year it showed four programs, starting with Gustav Klimt (official website).

On Friday, June 12, 2026, “RÊVE DES LUMIÈRES powered by EPSON” opened at TOKYO DREAM PARK in Ariake, Tokyo, as the 10th venue in the series. According to the organizers, it is the series’ first venue in Japan, using more than 100 Epson projectors and about 60 speakers in a space of about 1,200 m². Its first programs are a roughly 40-minute work on Van Gogh and a roughly 10-minute short on Gaudí. The venue is introduced in detail in our guide to RÊVE DES LUMIÈRES.

There is also an example in Yokohama of using industrial heritage as a vessel for images. “THE MOVEUM YOKOHAMA by TOYOTA GROUP,” opened in winter 2025, uses the roughly 6,000 m² space of Yamashita Pier Shed No. 4, which supported postwar logistics. For “Impressionist Monet and Ukiyo-e,” from Saturday, October 24, design and creative direction are by Gianfranco Iannuzzi, whom the official website introduces as having more than 30 years of experience in immersive art, with the Pola Museum of Art cooperating on academic supervision.

teamLab: “Ultrasubjective Space” with a moving viewpoint

In Japan, there is the art collective teamLab, which began its activities in 2001 and is made up of specialists including artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects. “teamLab Borderless,” which opened in Odaiba, Tokyo, on June 21, 2018, operated until August 31, 2022, and moved to Azabudai Hills on February 9, 2024.

According to teamLab, the Odaiba venue recorded the largest annual attendance (about 2.3 million) of any museum dedicated to a single artist group in its first year. “teamLab Planets TOKYO DMM,” opened in Toyosu on July 7, 2018, drew more than 1.25 million visitors from 106 countries and regions in a year. In 2022, the company opened “teamLab Botanical Garden Osaka,” which it calls its first permanent outdoor museum, at the Nagai Botanical Garden.

At the core of its thinking about its works is “Ultrasubjective Space.” teamLab explains that in photographs and Western perspective paintings, the flat surface becomes a boundary separating the space where the viewer stands from the space of the work. Thinking that classical East Asian paintings before the modern era may have flattened space according to a logic different from lenses and perspective, it says it explored ways of rendering artwork spaces built three-dimensionally on a computer into two dimensions according to that logic.

In perspective, a single viewpoint of the painter is the origin, and the viewer’s body is fixed. In Ultrasubjective Space, teamLab says, the viewpoint moves freely, and multiple viewers can enter the artwork space from their own positions. The explanation that viewers can move around inside the picture while remaining themselves also resonates with the experience of panorama audiences standing at the center of a painting.

Japanese art in space: Museum video exhibits and other players

NAKED, founded in 1997, sets out to create experiences that combine the narrative and world-building rooted in film with the technology of the times, and has produced works such as “NAKED meets Gaudí,” which drew 330,000 visitors according to the company. On the museum side, the Tokyo National Museum’s special exhibition “Utagawa Hiroshige: Edo’s Best Angles” (until December 20) includes an ultra-high-definition video corner showing the colors of Hiroshige’s works on large monitors.

Editor’s perspective

Tracing the lineage reveals what has not changed: the composition that places the audience at the center of the picture, staging that hides the apparatus, and design that makes the building itself part of the experience. From the purpose-built building in Leicester Square to quarries, foundries and logistics sheds, the histories of the buildings that serve as vessels support the stories of the experiences.

What has changed is that pictures move, sound plays and works respond to the audience’s movements. Photography and sharing have been added as well. On the other hand, images are not the original paintings themselves. The emergence of immersive exhibitions that also display originals or reproductions, and of museums involved through academic supervision or as part of exhibitions, can be seen as one current answer to the question of how to connect visual experiences with an understanding of the works.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between panorama halls and immersive museums?

Panorama halls surrounded the audience with a single large painted picture. Some, like Panorama Mesdag, even designed where the audience stood, with an artificial dune and a viewing platform. Today’s venues project moving images onto walls and floors with projectors and combine them with sound. RÊVE DES LUMIÈRES uses more than 100 projectors and about 60 speakers.

Can 19th-century panoramas still be seen?

Panorama Mesdag in The Hague, the Netherlands, opened in 1881 and, according to the museum, is the oldest panorama in the world still in its original location.

What are the main venues and exhibitions to experience in Japan this autumn and winter?

They include RÊVE DES LUMIÈRES in Ariake, Tokyo (opened June 12, 2026) and “Impressionist Monet and Ukiyo-e” at THE MOVEUM YOKOHAMA in Yokohama (Saturday, October 24, 2026 – Wednesday, March 31, 2027). teamLab has venues in Toyosu and Azabudai in Tokyo and at the Nagai Botanical Garden in Osaka, among others.

*Information as of October 21, 2026. Please check the official websites for the latest information.

*Top image: Robert Mitchell’s cross-section of the rotunda (panorama hall) in Leicester Square, London, 1801 (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

*This article was compiled by the TOKYO ART SPHERE editorial team based on official announcements by each organizer and facility and public materials from museums and universities (as of October 21, 2026).

Text: TOKYO ART SPHERE Editorial Team

A note from the publisher

*Disclosure: The “Ukiyo-e Immersive Art Exhibition,” “KUNIYOSHI IMMERSIVE ART” and “Ukiyo-e Immersive Art Museum GINZA” introduced in this article, and the nighttime event at Takada Honzan Senju-ji, are produced or created by HITOHATA, INC., an affiliate of HITOHATA ASSOCIATION, the general incorporated association that operates TOKYO ART SPHERE (About us).

Immersive exhibitions of ukiyo-e

The “Ukiyo-e Immersive Art Exhibition,” produced by HITOHATA, INC., began in Nagoya in summer 2023 and has drawn a cumulative total of more than 700,000 visitors in 11 cities in Japan and abroad (announcement of September 23, 2026). It turns more than 300 works by Hokusai, Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige and others into three-dimensional video spaces with 3DCG animation and projection mapping. The next venue is the Gifu City Museum of History (Friday, November 6 – Monday, January 11, 2027 [national holiday]), and a permanent venue, the “Ukiyo-e Immersive Art Museum GINZA,” is planned to open in Ginza in spring 2027. The history of the series is summarized in our article on the history of the Ukiyo-e Immersive Art Exhibition.

As part of museum exhibitions, “KUNIYOSHI IMMERSIVE ART,” based on more than 50 of Kuniyoshi’s ukiyo-e, was shown at “Ukiyo-e Super Creator: Utagawa Kuniyoshi” at the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art (2025) and the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art (2026). At its 2024 nighttime event, Takada Honzan Senju-ji in Tsu, Mie Prefecture, incorporated the 360-degree VR theater of its treasure house into tours guided by monks.