This is the last of a series of posts about the museums on Naoshima 直島, the Japanese island where we spent a full day. Chichu Art Museum 地中美術館 was last on the itinerary, and it was the pièce de résistance.
Enjoy a modern rendition of Debussy’s Bruyères by Víkingur Ólafsson, while browsing.
Chichu Art Museum 地中美術館
Unlike the other museums on the island, the entrance ticket was sold at an outlet in a plaza next to a parking lot. To reach the museum which is a short distance away, we walked uphill on a paved road flanked on one side by a charming stream, its banks adorned with blooming flowers. This may be a part of the garden that are planted with flowers which were depicted in Claude Monet’s paintings (we only read about this garden after our visit).
At the top is a gentle descending ramp that leads into the the museum. Chichu 地中 literally means ” in the middle of the ground” which perfectly describes the museum.
Built by Tadao Ando in 2004, the museum is embedded in the hillside overlooking the Seto Inland Sea, minimizing any impact on the landscape. There is not a freestanding building as such, it is the opposite of being monumental.
<< This model was displayed at the Ando Museum on the other side of the island (see our earlier post).
Since the subterranean museum does not allow photography except in a designated stairwell as shown immediately below. The remaining images in the post are borrowed from the Museum’s web site. If you do not want to read all the text, there is an unofficial VR walkthrough of the museum on YouTube at the end of this post. It is very real, don’t miss it.
The Museum houses a permanent collection of works by Claude Monet, James Turrell, and Walter De Maria.
Like Ando’s other museums on the island, the building material is mostly smooth low-gloss raw concrete. Various sections of the museum housing art works are designed specifically to be illuminated by natural light.
It was tailor-made to showcase how changes in daylight alter the perception of the art work, thus integrating the environment with the art.
Shortly after stepping into the subterranean museum, the path that led us towards the exhibits is disorienting. However, despite being underground, we never felt claustrophobic partly because sections of the path and the stairwell are open-air, lit by natural sunlight. It is impossible to orient one self relative to the entrance of the museum or any exterior reference but the clouds in the sky if one looks up.
Claude Monet
Five paintings – The Waterlilies – by Claude Monet were displayed in an expansive room, bathed in soft, muted natural lighting that produced no harsh shadows.
Prior to entering, visitors were politely requested to leave their shoes outside, as the room’s floor boasted a plush synthetic surface.
But for the few visitors who were in the room at the same time, it was an extraordinarily calming space that afforded quiet appreciation of the Impressionist masterpieces.
Walter De Maria
Walter de Maria (1935-2013) was an American artist known for his installations and land art, which aims to create situations where the landscape and nature, light and weather would generate a physical and psychic experience. We had previously seen The Broken Kilometer (393 West Broadway) and The New York Earth Room (141 Wooster Street) in New York Soho a number of years ago. Supported by the Dia Art Foundation, both have been opened continuously.
Time/Timeless/No Time , 2004
In Chichu Museum, the art space contains a black shiny sphere 2.2 meters in diameter and 27 gilded wooden geometric forms mounted on walls at various heights. Natural light coms from the ceiling which can produce dramatic changes in the room’s illumination depending on the hour. We were there for only about 10 minutes and could not observe the changes.
James Turrell
Turrell (1943- __) is known for creating art installations that mix natural light with artificial color through openings in ceilings thereby transforming internal spaces by ever shifting and changing color. We first experienced his Skyspaces installation at New York’s PS1 -“Matter“, and saw recently his “Three Gems” at de Young Museum in San Francisco.
Open Sky (2004) was on view during the museum’s regular opening hours. We were not able to see the other two works due to the time of day and the season.
We were again asked to remove our shoes before walking up and into the blue space which was boundless inside.
The museum has a shop as well as a cafe which overlooks the picturesque scenery of the Inland Sea.
According to its web site, the museum in its entirety can be seen as a singular, very large site-specific artwork.
We tend to agree that Benesse (the owner of the whole site on Naoshima) has realized the concept of integrating art, architecture and nature into one and they have demonstrated that art at this scale can be therapeutic.
As mentioned above, there is an unofficial virtual reality tour of the museum on YouTube, built with the Unreal game engine for a Master degree project. As we had been to the museum ourselves, we can say that the VR is very very close to the actual experience, and as a bonus, no crowds.
This post concludes our 6-part series on the art and architecture on Naoshima. Click to see the earlier posts: Naoshima, Ando Museum, Hiroshi Sugimoto Gallery, Benesse Art Museum and Valley Gallery.