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

Benesse Art Site Naoshima and Tadao Ando
by Shunsuke Kurakata

• I am a historian of architecture specializing in Japanese modern and contemporary architecture. In particular, my research focuses on “architects” who have not yet been widely studied in Japan. Today, under the theme of “The Past and Future of Benesse Art Site Naoshima,” I will talk about Tadao Ando, the architect who has played a key role in Benesse Art Site Naoshima.
  
  The word “endeavor” is one that can be associated closely with the character of Tadao Ando. The “Tadao Ando” exhibition that took place at the National Art Center, Tokyo in 2017 was given the subtitle “Endeavors” as such. Moreover, Ando is often thought of as a “fighting architect.” For the exhibition at the National Art Center, the audio-guide was in the voice of the architect himself. While explaining his works, he would say things such as, “Whether it is hot in summer or cold in winter, give it a go,” and repeat the phrase, “Give it a go.” I could see why he was often called “fighting architect.”
  
  Born in 1941, Tadao Ando established his studio, Tadao Ando Architect & Associates in 1969. His early masterpiece is called Row House in Sumiyoshi. A row house is normally a type of apartment housing that shares walls, but because each tenant of the row house was the owner of each apartment, one of them was detached and remodeled as a concrete structure. The space in the center of the house is roofless and so one has to walk through holding an umbrella when it is raining. Ando, who would fight even against his clients, found his own way in the field of architecture for the first time when creating this house. It should be noted that his debut work was a home, a private space.
  
  Ando himself used to live in a row house when he was a boy. There is an often-spoken episode about how one day, when a carpenter came to remodel his house and created a skylight, light entered the house that had been dim before. Ando was fascinated by the carpenter who made this magic happen and became interested in architecture. This experience inspired him to be an architect. Ando is not someone who accepts a given environment as it is. He has an attitude to fight against it. That Row House in Sumiyoshi that has an outdoor space in the middle represents his resistance against long-established styles.

  
  

  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.

  
  

  Benesse House Museum, completed in 1992, was the first art museum that Tadao Ando designed. As public architecture, he had already designed the Childrenʼs Museum, Hyogo, which was completed in 1989, and participated in the competition for Moderna Museet, Stockholm in 1990, which he could not win. However, Benesse House Museum can be said to be his "museum debut." As a matter of fact, Ando had presented a plan, "Art Gallery Complex" in 1977. Though it was not actualized, he planned to create an art gallery underground. This shows that the architect had already been interested in art before he met Mr. Soichiro Fukutake. When he actually encountered Mr. Fukutake, the museum structure designed by Ando was made into a reality. This encounter brought about various happenings and relationships. For the development of Benesse Art Site Naoshima afterwards, it was a truly decisive encounter. In terms of the development of Andoʼs style and career, Mr. Soichiro Fukutakeʼs influence was immense.
  
  When Ando was designing Benesse House Museum, I assume he had "fights" with the artists. Since Benesse House Museum is open to the outside and has gallery spaces of unusual forms, I can only imagine that there must have been conflicting opinions expressed by artists. As for "fights" with nature, Ando certainly integrated many elements of nature of Naoshima, but he did not entrust everything to nature. He may have said, "Give it a go" to nature as well. Naoshimaʼs nature is dynamic enough to accommodate his architecture. Such a relationship to nature is the essence of Andoʼs architecture in Naoshima.
  
  For example, one of Chichu Art Museumʼs greatest feature is that people inside do not feel as if they are underground. Walls keep them from knowing where the ground level is. This structure makes the most of the principle that the ground level is canceled by walls. Such is the case with Row House in Sumiyoshi. If you are told that you are underground, you may think so. I think cancelation of the ground level by walls is the greatest discovery of the architect Tadao Ando.
  
  One of the significant achievements of Benesse Art Site Naoshima was that it drew Ando, who works mostly with urban spaces and environments, into nature. Wouldnʼt many agree that the architect Tadao Ando is basically a metropolitan? To metropolitans, the most familiar environment cannot be wild nature. Andoʼs architecture is present in nature but continuously fighting with nature. The varying nature of Naoshima has always led him to do something he has never done before and has provoked different kinds of fights in some way or another. Ando has dealt with this, and in doing so, he has created fabulous works one after another. In the Valley Gallery of 2022 as well, his architecture highlights its environment and made the entire place truly unique. "Ando as the architect of endeavors and fights" as I mentioned in the beginning may sound somewhat commonplace. However, it is linked to the core philosophy of Tadao Ando, and the high quality of his architecture in Naoshima demonstrates this as such.

• Shunsuke Kurakata

  

  Shunsuke Kurakata is an architectural historian and professor at Osaka Metropolitan University, Graduate School of Engineering. In undertaking r esear ch of the his tor y of moder n and contemporary architecture in Japan, Kurakata actively seeks to convey the significance of architecture in society. He is the author of books including Kyoto Kingendai Kenchiku Monogatari [ Stories of Modern and Contemporary Architecture in Kyoto] and Kobe, Osaka, KyotoRetoro Kenchiku Sanpo [Walking about Retro Architecture in Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto] among others. He ser ves as Chairman of the executive committee for the "Tokyo Architecture Festival,"an architecture-viewing event, as well as a member of the executive committee for "Open House Osaka" and the "Kyoto Modern Architecture Festival." He has received several notable awards including the AIJ Prize and the AIJ Education Prize.