Naoshima "Island of Art" 2-day tour (Round Trip from Kyoto/Osaka)

Itinerary

Day 1: From Osaka/Kyoto to Naoshima (Half day sightseeing at Naoshima)

Stop At: Chichu Art Museum, 3449-1, Naoshima-cho, Kagawa-gun Kagawa Prefecture
Chichu Art Museum
Chichu Art Museum was constructed in 2004 as a site rethinking the relationship between nature and people. The museum was built mostly underground to avoid affecting the beautiful natural scenery of the Seto Inland sea. Artworks by Claude Monet, James Turrell, and Walter De Maria are on permanent display in this building designed by Tadao Ando. Despite being primarily subterranean, the museum lets in an abundance of natural light that changes the appearance of the artworks and the ambience of the space itself with the passage of time, throughout the day and all along the four seasons of the year.
Taking form as the artists and architect bounced ideas off each other, the museum in its entirety can be seen as a very large site-specific artwork.
Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Lee Ufan Art Museun, 1390 Azakuraura, Naoshima-cho, Kagawa-gun 761-3110 Kagawa Prefecture
Opened in time for the 2010 Setouchi Triennale, the Lee Ufan Museum (李禹煥美術館, Ri Ūfan Bijutsukan) is one of the more recent additions to Naoshima. The museum features works by the Korean contemporary artist Lee Ufan, who was born in Korea but has been working and teaching in Japan. On display are large installations made of stone, concrete and huge slabs of iron, as well as a number of paintings from earlier in his career.

The museum building was designed by the Japanese architect Ando Tadao, who also designed the other museums on the island, namely the nearby Benesse House and Chichu Art Museum. Just like his other works on the island, the Lee Ufan Museum building mixes geometrically shaped reinforced concrete with nature and open spaces that accentuate the artwork displayed within.
Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Benesse House Museum, Godanji, Naoshima-cho, Kagawa-gun 761-3110 Kagawa Prefecture
Benesse House Museum opened in 1992 as a facility integrating a museum with a hotel, based on the concept of "coexistence of nature, art and architecture." Designed by Tadao Ando, the facility is built on high ground overlooking the Seto Inland Sea and features large apertures that serve to open up the interior to the splendid natural surroundings. In addition to exhibiting the painting, sculpture, photography, and installations in its collection, the Museum also contains permanent site-specific installations that artists have created especially for the building, selecting locations on their own and designing the works for those spaces. The Museum's artworks are found not just within its galleries, but in all parts of the building, as well as in scattered locations along the seashore that borders the complex and in the nearby forest. Benesse House Museum is truly a rare site where nature, art, and architecture come together, in an environment containing numerous site-specific works created for the natural environs of Naoshima or inspired by the architectural spaces they inhabit.
Duration: 1 hour

No meals included on this day.
Accommodation included: Stay at Hotel Granvia Okayama or similar (TWN room)

Day 2: Half day sightseeing at Naoshima and return to Osaka/Kyoto

Stop At: Art House Project, Naoshima-cho, Kagawa-gun 761-3110 Kagawa Prefecture
Art House Project
The Art House Project is an art project underway in Naoshima's Honmura district. It began in 1998 with Kadoya, and currently comprises seven locations: Kadoya, Minamidera, Kinza, Go'o Shrine, Ishibashi, Gokaisho, and Haisha. In this project, artists take empty houses scattered about residential areas and turn the spaces themselves into works of art, weaving in history and memories of the period when the buildings were lived in and used. Going from one of the houses to another, visitors pass through the Honmura district, where everyday life unfolds around them, in the process not only engaging with works of art, but also sensing the layers of time and history interwoven in the community and the fabric of local people's lives. A notable feature of the Art House Project is that because viewing it means traversing a zone of daily life, it acts as a catalyst for interaction between visitors and local residents, giving rise to many a memorable episode. A truly organic project that changes day-to-day, it has evolved to present a new model of community, characterized by positive interaction between urban and rural, young and old, resident and visitor.
Duration: 3 hours

Meals included:
• Breakfast
No accommodation included on this day.