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Setonaikai NP, Kagawa
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
In Rei Naito’s “Matrix,” water doesn’t run from a visible fountain: groundwater wells up at scattered points, then creeps over the faintly sloped floor, gathering into pools that can grow, join, and recede.
The artwork doesn’t hang on a wall: Rei Naito’s “Matrix” occupies the entire interior, a pillar-free room about 40 by 60m but only 4.5m high, shaped as a low concrete shell.
Two open roof apertures let the outside world into the museum: visitors may hear birds and feel wind, while rain, snow, or even insects can join the changing scene inside.
The neighboring café serves light meals made with rice from the surrounding terraces, plus drinks and desserts featuring Teshima-grown fruit—a delicious link between the museum and island farming.
Groundwater is listed among the materials in “Matrix.” The museum’s water comes from a well about 180m deep, a way to avoid burdening public water supplies in this low-rainfall part of Setouchi.
To create the shell, builders shaped a 6,000m³ mound of soil, cast concrete over it, then removed the earth through the two roof openings—an unexpectedly earthy way to make this airy museum.
As farming declined, cultivation shrank to one-tenth of an 8ha terraced area. From 2009, local residents, the town, and a terrace-preservation group worked to revive fallow plots around the museum.
To keep the shell seamless, more than 150 workers poured about 600m³ of roof concrete continuously from the morning of March 11 to around noon on March 12, 2010. Islanders watched overnight and applauded when it was done.
Look beyond the water and you may spot ribbons swaying by the roof openings, along with fine thread and tiny beads shimmering in the changing light—all delicate elements of “Matrix.”
The museum grounds aren’t planted with a conventional ornamental garden: every plant used there is a weed native to Teshima, helping the building’s approach blend into the island landscape.
