Naoshima New Museum of Art is a home for Asian art, and a lasting legacy, in Seto Inland Sea

The Naoshima New Museum of Art, the newest member in the celebrated family of cultural spaces that form the Benesse Art Site Naoshima, has just opened its doors. Set in a wider site that spreads across the islands of Naoshima, Teshima, and Inujima in the waters between Japan's main bodies of land, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, the new space is dedicated to contemporary Asian art – and has been designed by Japanese architecture master and Naoshima stalwart Tadao Ando (marking his tenth commission for the same client, the Fukutake Foundation, which is behind the Benesse initiatives).

Inside Tadao Ando's Naoshima New Museum of Art

The Naoshima New Museum of Art is not just one more extension to a beloved arts and community home, but forms a seminal project for its wider cultural site. Soichiro Fukutake, who has led the Benesse Art Site Naoshima since its inception in the late 1980s, has been the force behind its numerous venues and draws in the Seto Inland Sea institution, from Tadao Ando’s Chichu Art Museum (2004) and Valley Gallery (2022) to Hiroshi Sambuichi's Naoshima Hall and Matabe House (2017). Conceived as a real legacy project for an ever-thriving cultural organisation, the addition was designed with the next generations' and Naoshima's future in mind.

'The Naoshima New Museum of Art focuses primarily on Asian contemporary art. This is because, in addition to our expectations that art from these regions will grow in interesting ways going into the future, I believe that we, as Japanese people, must be conscious about our belonging to Asia both geopolitically and culturally. For myself, Asian sensibilities are based on the awareness that human beings are a part of nature and hence living with nature,' says Soichiro Fukutake.

'Having our Western art collection exhibited at our existing museums and art facilities, together with our Asian art collection, including Japanese art being shown at the Naoshima New Museum of Art, the possibilities to develop a comprehensive and well-balanced exhibition program in Benesse Art Site Naoshima are greatly expanded.'

Spanning three floors – one above and two below ground, connected by a subtly dramatic, single staircase – the museum was designed to be close to the ground and echo the island's vernacular forms. Its low volume and pitched roof speak to that, while black plaster on the outside walls that matches the traditional burned-cedar method typically used on the island, and pebble walls inspired by the houses of the Honmura area, further ensure the structure feels at home in its setting.

A carefully designed skylight brings natural the sun deep into the lower floors, and a cafe with an open terrace provides an opportunity for visitors to pause and enjoy the views of the surrounding sea.

Ando explains: 'It is my belief that the experiences in Naoshima will forever linger in the memories of those who visit the island. The songs we listened to and the works of art we saw in our childhood are never forgotten. I hope that many children will visit Naoshima and be able to feel their senses being stimulated so that they can open up doors to a new world.'

The architect continues: 'Such “moving experiences” have the power to nourish human beings and refine our senses, which will in turn lead to more opportunities to be emotionally moved. Naoshima is an island like no other, which is filled with such opportunities. For the Naoshima New Museum of Art, I once again endeavoured to build a place that cultivates sensibilities and moves people’s hearts.'

The Naoshima New Museum of Art launches with an inaugural exhibition titled ‘From the Origin to the Future’. The show, spread across the building's eight galleries, comprises brand new works by 12 artists and groups – some new to the foundation's environment, and some valued, long-term collaborators, such as Cai Guo-Qiang, Takashi Murakami, Do Ho Suh (also currently showing at London's Tate Modern) and Pannaphan Yodmanee.

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