Naoshima

“The role of architectural space as a spiritual shelter is crucial. Here again, what is of primary importance are the imagination and fiction that architecture contains beyond the substantive. Without stepping into the ambiguous realm of the human spirit – happiness, affection, tranquility, tension – architecture cannot achieve its fictive vocation. This is truly architecture’s proper realm, but it is also one that is impossible to formulate. Only after speculating the worlds of both the actual and the fictional together can architecture come into existence as an expression, and rise into the realm of art.” - Tadao Ando

We were lucky to visit.

Having spent our travels booking last minute accommodation (offering up a truly mixed bag of places to rest our heads en route to the ferry port), we couldn’t believe our luck when availability came up at the Benesse Art Site nearing the end of our travels across Japan. We’d been told there were no rooms more than once.

Unexpectedly, they called back…

Built in three-key phases, the first in 1992, the revolutionary ‘art island’ became the start point for the core ideas that inspired ’One Thing Well’. The combination of stone, rubble and concrete on near every surface of the build; meticulously designed to co-exist with the sea, sand, hills and forests surrounding the manmade structures inspired the key shapes and colour palette of the new I AND ME collection.

It felt serene, but within the peace powerful structures revealed themselves. Rather, they blend in until they choose to reveal themselves. The air is tropical, there are huge lightning storms and endless, thriving wildlife among the overgrown forests.

The considered topography of the site is arguably the finest example of Tadao Ando marrying architecture with nature; a task that has been at the very core of his practice ever since he took up the practice. Benesse Art Site represents a stellar example of interpreting and then co-existing with one’s surroundings.

“Art, architecture and nature become one under Ando’s watchful eye. Indeed, few would deny that once they have seen Naoshima, they have had a taste of paradise.”

Many moons before our time on Naoshima we spent the summer working as a gallery assistant at The Serpentine Gallery. It was a good summer for two reasons; first, the weather was out and second, we got the opportunity to work on Christian Boltanski’s ‘Les Archives du Cœur’ - a roaming installation that saw Boltanski take readings of people’s heartbeats around the globe with a view to storing them in a permanent archive on the neighbouring art island, Teshima.

The premise is simple; you contribute a recording of your heartbeat and it remains immortalised on Teshima for the rest of time. Having contributed our own heartbeat during a quiet moment in Boltanski’s white booth in London’s Serpentine Gardens, we uploaded the file to the master drive and took great solace in that moment, safe in the knowledge that it would be safely stored in the centre of Japan’s Inland sea among an ocean of heartbeats sourced from every corner of the globe.

At the time, we never anticipated we would make the trip to Naoshima, and of course, when we did we made sure to catch the ferry to Les Archives du Cœur.

Divided into three rooms; ‘The Heart Room’, ‘The Recording Room’ and ‘The Listening Room’ we listened to our heartbeat (among others).