Valley Gallery

The Valley Gallery (ヴァレーギャラリー) opened on 12 March 2022, the year of Benesse House's thirtieth anniversary, on the same day as the Hiroshi Sugimoto Gallery "Time Corridors" (杉本博司ギャラリー 時の回廊), set in the Park. It is Tadao Ando's ninth building at Benesse Art Site Naoshima; the construction was entrusted to Kajima (鹿島建設).

Ando explains that the project began with Soichiro Fukutake (福武總一郎) and others, by examining the site. They settled on a corner of the valley leading to Kuraura (倉浦), where the Lee Ufan Museum stands: a beautiful spot ringed by slopes that the yamatsutsuji azaleas (ヤマツツジ) cover in early spring.

This valley is regarded as a boundary and a sacred place, and the building is built along this valley.

The building is small: 96.25 square metres of floor area. Ando gives it double concrete walls, topped by a steel-plate roof 12 mm thick. Openings are cut in it by geometric operations, shifts and incisions, so that rain, wind and light come into the building just as they are; Ando wanted a space small but with the strength of a crystal. The building is conceived from the image of a small shrine (祠).

The double-walled interior is introspective, yet it opens to the semi-outdoors, like the Seaside Gallery (シーサイドギャラリー) on the sea side: one feels the movement of light and wind directly.

The layout of the whole site, building and open-air surroundings, links the Benesse House buildings and the museums scattered through the landscape, and lets visitors enjoy the mountain's plantings, which look different with each season.

The gallery shows works by two artists, in the building and around it.

Yayoi Kusama (草間彌生), Narcissus Garden (《ナルシスの庭》, 1966/2022): the work unfolds on a large scale inside and outside. It goes back to the 1966 Venice Biennale, where the artist covered the lawn outside the pavilion with mirror balls, which drew worldwide attention.

Tsuyoshi Ozawa (小沢剛), Slag Buddha 88 (《スラグブッダ88》, 2006/2022), a permanent installation: eighty-eight Buddhas made of the slag left after incinerating industrial waste illegally dumped on the island of Teshima (豊島); the motif refers to the Buddha statues of the eighty-eight places that mark Naoshima's history. Shown beside a pond since 2006, the work was partly modified for the gallery in 2022.

The works inside the building are to be changed every few years. Art direction: Akiko Miki (三木あき子).

The gallery is open from 9:30 to 16:00 (last entry 15:30). Entry is included in the Benesse House Museum ticket (charged, free up to age 15 and for hotel guests), which can also be bought on site, at the gallery. Only cash and PayPay are accepted there.

The island is reached by ferry to Miyanoura port (宮浦港), then by municipal bus to Tsutsuji-so (つつじ荘). From the east gate, near Tsutsuji-so, to the north gate, near the Lee Ufan Museum, the area belongs to Benesse Art Site Naoshima: visitors are asked not to enter it by car or bicycle unless staying at Benesse House. Getting around is on foot or by the free shuttle, which links Tsutsuji-so, the Benesse House Museum, the Lee Ufan Museum and the Chichu Art Museum.