Category: art

Benesse House Museum

Posted on by Hijiri

I posted about the Benesse House, but today, I want to share my experience from the Benesse House Museum. Again, all designed by the amazing Tadao Ando. I couldn’t take any pictures inside, but there is this outside area where I could take some photos…

The artworks you see here are by Hiroshi Sugimoto Time Exposed , 1980-97

There were so many things to enjoy this area, my friend and I spent good amount of time and we could easily spent more…

His photographs are serving as a time capsule for a series of events in time… with the waterlines at different times…

The walls end and you see ocean in between the walls — but notice the ocean waterline and the artwork waterline? It aligns! So I guess you are seeing the “current” in here… so very awesome… Also, I couldn’t take a photo, but from here, you can see a tiny something on the little island… We’d been wondering and later we found out that it’s also his same series waterline work hang it on the island! So that aligns with all the work as well. Amazing.

Like this one. This is the other one we found — what a discovery! We were pretty excited.

Even stairs are designed great…

Another art you can enjoy in between the walls are these boats installation (yellow and black — do you see?). These are exactly the same from the painting in the museum, when you look at the painting and look outside, you see the same art. How awesome! right?

Really enjoyed visiting! I attended a little tour also, and that was very cool, too.

Benesse House

Posted on by Hijiri

I want to post about the Benesse House we stayed at — great experience all around! There are few parts where you can stay, but we stayed at the Museum room which was a rare and awesome experience. We enjoyed the museum in the middle of the night, too :)

A Kaiseki dinner at the Museum restaurant Issen. I love kaiseki — it is work of art indeed. So. very. pretty. and goooooood.

A Basquiat work:

After the dinner, we went up to the Oval area. Only hotel guests at the museum or the oval can visit this area with a little cable car. These blue doors are to the hotel rooms, there is an oval shaped water fountain in the middle and the top is also oval shaped, opened to the sky.

The sky, the reflections, the lighting… it was beautiful…

Next morning, we went up to this area again for another look. A view from the little cable car you take…

Morning Oval — it looks so different!

You can go up and walk around and look down…

Cool surroundings: fountain.

The rectangle area is like a painting, but that’s a glass wall and crosswalk.

I highly recommend visiting/staying there if you ever have a chance! Thank you to my best friend, Mitchy, too!!! Love you! xoxo

Cultural Melting Bath: Project for Naoshima

Posted on by Hijiri

After the Chichu Art Museum visit, we went to experience the “Cultural Melting Bath: Project for Naoshima (文化大混浴)” by Cai Guo-Qiang. It is one of the outdoor works at the Benesse House Museum and you could only experience on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 4pm for an hour by reservation only. Plus, you need to be a hotel guest at Benesse House, which we stayed at one of the Museum rooms (it is IN the museum! You can walk around the museum in the middle of the night!) and so I was lucky to be able to enjoy this work. And yes, this artwork allows the visitors to take an actual bath! (Please have your bathing suit ready.)

Taifu rocks from China and an American-made Jacuzzi tab are arranged according to Feng Shui, and five kinds of medical herbs added to the Jacuzzi water.

It’s a cultural melting bath so you will be in the Jacuzzi with some other people (6 people max.)…

The square looking thing is the Jacuzzi tab…

A view from the tab…

and you can walk right to the beach…

A view from the beach…

It was actually 90-something degrees out and so I thought we would pass out from the heat in the hot tab, but it was actually a nice and cool experience. Being in the Jacuzzi was nicer than being outside, which our head was… I think this would be perfect in Fall or Spring :)

There is another artwork in Naoshima called “I Love Yu” by Shinro Ohtake that I couldn’t go this time, but it’s a public bath house — the whole bath house is an art! and of course you can take bath. You can enjoy the artwork from outside, from inside and from the bath tab. I must go next time… :)

Chichu Art Museum

Posted on by Hijiri

This week, I am going to take you all to Naoshima. This was one of my highlights of the trip, my friend and I spent our whole day and a half at Benesse Art Site — it was amazing! Really enjoyed everything. Must go back there again someday…

It’s a ferry boat ride away from Takamatsu port…

We are going to Chichu Art Museum today…

Pretty flowers were everywhere…

The word ‘chichu’ means ‘in the ground’ and true to its name, the Museum is built almost entirely into the hill. The bold design thus maintains harmony with the natural landscape. The architect used only the most basic materials – concrete, steel, glass and wood – to create this masterpiece. (via SIAF website)

It is designed by Tadao Ando — his work is truly amazing, the space, the concrete, the atmosphere… you have to be there and feel the space to know what I mean, you just get stunned by the whole space! Oh, I loved it.

Inside of the museum is strictly no photography… you just have to go there :) Even though there are only few work from Claude Monet, James Turrell, and Walter De Maria, the each room takes your breath away, I could only say “amazing” over and over again!!

There is a little outside area from the cafe…

and of course the great Seto Inland Sea view…

The building you see is the Benesse House hotel — where we stayed! I’ll talk about that later…