Minamidera (南寺)

Minamidera (南寺, "south temple") is one of the seven houses of the Art House Project (家プロジェクト, Ie purojekuto) in Honmura (本村), the old district of Naoshima, in Kagawa Prefecture. The project, launched in 1998 with the Kadoya house (角屋), turns empty houses into works of art in a village where people still live. Minamidera is a new building, designed by Tadao Ando (安藤忠雄) to the dimensions of James Turrell's work "Backside of the Moon".

It stands where a temple named Minamidera existed until the Meiji era. The surroundings brought together five temples and shrines and the remains of a castle, which made them the historical and cultural centre of Naoshima; the new building keeps the memory of that temple, a spiritual refuge for the inhabitants.

The house opened to the public in April 1999. The construction took only about two months from the start of works to the opening. Arriving in Japan in March 1999, Turrell was satisfied with the building but had the interior redone several times: he kept asking for dimmer lighting, to the point where, at the limit, the dimmer switched the light off and had to be replaced, and he also intervened on the position of the lamps and the treatment of the wall edges. A craftsman from the building team remembers that Turrell was not reasoning in dimensions or shapes, but in how light comes into view.

Ando designed the house to the dimensions of the work it holds, paying close attention to the surroundings and the particularities of the place. From the outside, a long approach runs along a wall of charred cedar planks (焼杉板) and then an old earthen wall, to the entrance.

Inside, visitors feel their way along a dark corridor to a room plunged in total darkness. The space reflects Turrell's intent down to the detail: the intensity of the lighting, the position of the lamps, the treatment of the wall edges.

The building houses a permanent work by James Turrell, Backside of the Moon, installed in 1999. Visitors enter the dark, wait, and at some point a diffuse glow takes shape: it is one of the works in which Turrell seeks to give light substance.

Turrell, born in Los Angeles in 1943, began Roden Crater in Arizona in 1979, made House of Light (光の館) in Niigata Prefecture in 2000, and conceived three works in 2004 for the Chichū Art Museum (地中美術館) on Naoshima: Afrum, Pale Blue, Open Sky and Open Field.

Since 1 October 2024, visits are by reservation of a date and time, with places limited per time slot. Minamidera has its own ticket; the common ticket and the one-site ticket do not cover it. The house is open from 10:00 to 16:30, last entry 16:05, and closed on Monday (if the Monday is a public holiday, it opens and closes the next day). The ticket is paid; children aged 5 and under are not admitted, because of the nature of the work. Since October 2024 it is no longer included in the guided tours of the art houses.

Photography is not permitted at Minamidera, and video and copying are to be avoided. Suitcases, umbrellas and tripods are left at the Honmura Lounge & Archive (本村ラウンジ＆アーカイブ, 850-2 Naoshima), which also serves as reception and ticket office for the art houses. The district is residential: please respect the inhabitants as you walk. From Miyanoura port, the town bus serves Honmura.