Bubbles We Got Bubbles

The View from the Oval where we are staying 

The Oval at Benesse House

The Teshmia Museum

Art Project Restaurant - glad we didn't have a hangover!

Sitting on the Dock at Teshima 

The Giant Pumpkin on Naoshima

Setting Sun over the Sea

Cathy meets Ando

We got up early to take a bus to the ferry terminal. The weather was clear today, it was beautiful. Somehow we missed the bus, but the hotel drove us in their car and we made the ferry. The ferry was taking us from our Island of Naoshima to another island: Teshima where there is a new museum and art projects. We met our driver at the dock, he has the ONLY taxi on Teshima (it pays to plan ahead). He spoke no English but we managed to communicate our desires. The first visit was to the Teshima Art Museum.

We had NO idea what art was in the art museum or anything about it. I am not sure why we hadn’t previously checked it out. It is wonderful! It is creative! It is original! It was a TOTAL surprise. When I describe it, you are going to think we are nuts, but believe me, everyone there, including us was mesmerized and loved it. It was well worth the trip. I can guarantee you my description cannot capture the museum.

If you have read the Blogs we have written about Naoshima or even just looked at the pictures of the architecture by Tadeo Ando, you would quickly have noticed Ando does straight lines of concrete walls and hallways leading from level to level room to room. The Teshima Museum designed by Ryue Nishizawa is one curved concrete undulating room with out a straight surface in it. It is an enormous oval shape. The museum was built to house a singular work of art by the artist Rei Naito.

They require you to take your shoes off before entering the structure. Further they explain there are puddles of water on the floor that are part of the exhibit. The floor is polished concrete and not level. Water comes up from the floor in various ways. Some places there is simply a tiny hole and a drop raises from it. Other places there are small ping pong ball like objects on the floor that from which water drops emerge. These sources of water are scattered far apart randomly to the eye. The water drops form bigger bubbles of water. They flow a few inches, they join other drops and scurry across the floor. Everywhere people are either sitting and watching these formations of water and movement or standing transfixed as they watch this very kinetic experience. All I can say is we loved it.

From there we visited several other art installations in various homes on the island. We had a sushi lunch on the pier and return by ferry to our island. We went for a walk to explore the beach and the park art filled park. We had dinner tonight at the Benesse Park Hotel. Tomorrow we ferry, taxi and bullet train to Kyoto.