Naoshima New Museum of Art Pre-Talk Vol.1
"From Individual Facilities to a Group of Museums;
The Past and Future of Benesse Art Site Naoshima"

• Index

  1. The Past and Future of Benesse Art Site Naoshima by Akiko Miki
  2. A Harmony of Human Relationships and the Environment by Eriko Osaka
  3. Benesse Art Site Naoshima and Tadao Ando by Shunsuke Kurakata
  4. "The self" as an Ignition Point by Mari Hashimoto
  5. Discussion―After the Individual Talks

The Past and Future of Benesse Art Site Naoshima
by Akiko Miki

• As we move forward with the launch of the new museum, please allow me to talk about the museums and art facilities that Benesse Art Site Naoshima has established so far as the premise, and to explain an outline of the new museum.

  In 1989, Naoshima International Camping Ground opened and was supervised by Tadao Ando to provide opportunities for people to experience the natural environment of the Seto Inland Sea. In 1990, Karel Appel's sculpture, Frog and Cat, was the first contemporary artwork installed in Naoshima.

  
  

  In 1992, Benesse House Museum was established. It was the first structure designed by Tadao Ando on Naoshima. This facility was particularly innovative due to the fact that it was a combination of a museum and a hotel. The "Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum," as it was named back then, became the starting point of Benesseʼs art activities. Among the special exhibitions held during its roughly first three years, "Open Air ʼ94 Out of Bounds ̶ Contemporary Art in the Seascape" in 1994 became a major turning point. Through this exhibition, Benesse Art Site Naoshima was convinced that contemporary art could manifest its inherent potential in the rich natural environment and began to commission artists to create site-specific works of art to suit both indoor and outdoor locations across Naoshima.

  In 1998, the Art House Project was opened to the public in the Honmura disctrict in the central area of Naoshima Island, a project developed for the first time outside the southern area of the island where Benesse House Museum was located and all of the activities until then had been conducted. The Art House Project not only aims to remodel old houses but also makes each entire space into a work of art. It takes place in the areas where islanders actually live and so has extended the field of Benesse Art Site Naoshimaʼs art activities.
  

  In 2004, the Chichu Art Museum opened. Ando designed its structure so that it would not disrupt the scenic views around it, and that sunlight would come into the interior spaces. Under the concept, "a place for reflecting upon the relationship between human beings and nature," the works of Claude Monet, James Turrell and Walter De Maria are permanently exhibited. In 2008, Inujima Seirensho Art Museum opened on Inujima Island. It consists of the ruins of a refinery designated as a Heritage of Industrial Modernization that are preserved and renovated as a museum.

  Naoshima Bath " I ♥ 湯", which opened in 2009, is a work of art created by Shinro Ohtake where you can actually take a bath. Importantly, the facility is managed by Town-Naoshima Tourism Association, demonstrating a new form of collaboration with the local communities. Lee Ufan Museum, established in 2010, is a museum dedicated to the works of the particular artist. With the addition of Porte vers l'Infini in 2019, the entire natural environment of the place increasingly seems to form a work of art.

  
  

  In 2010, Teshima Art Museum was established in the Karato district on Teshima Island. Rei Naito was the artist and Ryue Nishizawa was the architect. Looking down at the structure, its form is like a waterdrop and fits the landscape with the rice terraces around it that were restored when the museum opened. On the beach of the other side of Karato, Christian Boltanskiʼs Les Archives du Cœur　has been installed. For his ongoing project to collect heartbeats around the world, Boltanski chose Teshima because he explained that taking hours to come to Teshima was meaningful, and that Teshimaʼs context is incorporated in the meaning of the work itself. Also in 2010, Inujima Art House Project designed by architect Kazuyo Sejima began on Inujima.

  In 2013, ANDO MUSEUM, which represents the essence of Tadao Andoʼs architecture, opened in the Honmura district of Naoshima. In the same year, Miyanoura Gallery 6 was created by remodeling a former pachinko parlor in the Miyanoura district. In this gallery, since 2019, the artist Motoyuki Shitamichi has been continuing and showing the series of projects called Setouchi " " Archive. In Teshima, Tadanori Yokooʼs Teshima Yokoo House opened in 2013, and Shinro Ohtakeʼs Needle Factory opened in 2016.

  In 2022, Valley Gallery, the smallest of the structures designed by Ando in Naoshima, opened. Its concept was that not only the interior space of the structure but also the natural environment surrounding it should be a gallery space. In the same year, Hiroshi Sugimoto Gallery Time Corridor was completed within Benesse House Park. It is used not only as the exhibition space for Sugimotoʼs works but also partially as the lounge for the hotel guests during designated hours.

  Naoshima New Museum of Art will open in the Spring of 2025 in the Honmura district. It is the 10th architectural work by Tadao Ando in Benesse Art Site Naoshima. With two underground floors and a ground floor, there will be four gallery spaces in the structure.
  
  Up until now, museums and other art facilities were built as individual entities in each area. However, with this new museum, they will be grasped as a "Group of Museums." While many existing museums have mostly showed their permanent collections so far, the new museum will hold special exhibitions and events, including talks to provide opportunities and dynamic activities for people to encounter and gather with others so that they want to come back here again and again. And we aim to harmonize and unify art, architecture, nature and community furthermore.

• Akiko Miki

  

  Director, Naoshima New Museum of Art/International Artistic Director, Benesse Art Site Naoshima. Former Chief and Senior curator at Palais de Tokyo（Paris, 2000-2014）, Artistic Director and Director, Yokohama Triennale 2011 and 2017. Guest curator at Barbican Art Gallery, London, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Yokohama Museum of Art, Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art among others.