Naoshima, Nature, Art, Architecture, photographs by Naoya Hatakeyama & Osamu Watanabe, and essays by Miwon Kwon & Kayo Tokuda Hatje Cantz, 38€, English/Japanese

The museum is the product of the collaboration between architect Tadao Ando, who always connects his design to the environment, and two contemporary artists, Walter De Maria and James Turrell, who have considered how human beings cope with the land, and the inspiration of Monet as a superb gardener, who created the subjects of his art himself. Thoroughly aware of the local climate, the architect, artists, and curatorial staff planned the lighting in the galleries based solely on the movement of the sun. Every year, 120,000 people visit the Chichu Art Museum and its permanent exhibition of the last fi ve paintings in Monet’s Water Lilies series, and installations by Walter De Maria and James Turrell.

Art, architecture, nature and people, visitors and locals, all come together to create the world of Naoshima. Only sixty-fi ve rooms are available in the four Benesse House buildings, designed by Tadao Ando, built not to stand against nature and have artworks installed around them, but to turn the whole site into a fi eld for art activities, keeping one concept in mind: to create a grand view that presents people with time and space removed from everyday life to allow introspection and meditation on living well. What composes the experience of Naoshima are not only the works of art, but also anything encountered by our senses: landscape, people, the air, the smell and the taste of food.

Noashima is full of surprises. Each year the winner of the Benesse Prize, awarded at the Venice Biennale for young artists, has added more to think about. So far prizewinners include Cai Guo-Qiang, Alexandros Psychoulis, Olafur Eliasson, Janet Cardiff , George Bures Miller and other artists. Besides the magnificent permanent collection (Walter de Maria, James Turrell, Jackson Pollack, Cy Twombly, Bruce Nauman, David Hockney, Claude Monet), many site-specific works have also been commissioned for Naoshima by artists like Jannis Kounellis or Richard Long.

There are nearly a thousand islands in the Seto Inland Sea. The scope of the foundation program will soon spread to nearby islands such as Inujima and Teshima. In the meanwhile, you have a book that is itself a small piece of this magic island. A place for thought.

Left image: Walter De Maria Time/Timeless/No-Time

Right image: Claude Monet space in Chichu Art Museum. 

Haisha was once the home and office of a local dentist. It has been transformated into a part-sculptural, part-graphic artwork by Shinro Ohtake.