Lee Ufan Museum, Naoshima Japan – Tadao Ando
This is the first museum devoted to the oeuvre of the Japanese-Korean artist Lee Ufan, a central figure in the minimalistic Mono-ha movement circa 1970. The semi-subterranean museum, designed in collaboration with architect Tadao Ando, has become another Naoshima landmark. The building is composed from three rectangular rooms built into the ground, a closed triangular forecourt, and an approach path lined with parallel walls. Visitors enter the building by weaving around these walls that form the only elevation of the museum. The entrance to the exhibition spaces are reached only after temporarily entering the ground and reemerging within the triangular forecourt that frames the sky above. The three subterranean art spaces are attributed with different qualities of materiality, light, and scale in response to the artwork exhibited in each of the rooms. The details of the spaces were designed according to the preferences of the artist.
Further Reading: Insular Insight – Where Art and Architecture Conspire with Nature
