Yayoi Kusama’s polka-dotted pumpkin overlooking the ocean, James Turrell’s Open Sky installation, and an entire art space by Walter De Maria are just a few of the groundbreaking works on display at Benesse Art Site Naoshima, a cluster of once-polluted islands in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea rehabilitated by contemporary art and architecture by Tadao Ando, Sanaa, and Hiroshi Sambuichi. Like Dia:Beacon in New York and the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, Naoshima is a pilgrimage site for contemporary art lovers and a place where locals can immerse themselves in art outside of the traditional galleries and museums. “I was born in a rather rural area, so I love nature,” Soichiro Fukutake, the billionaire arts patron and honorary adviser to Benesse Holdings, says. “So rather than installing art in white cube museums, I like to install art in nature, art with strong messages, contemporary art especially, and find the right environment and the right architecture.”

Full Moon Stone Circle by Richard Long at Benesse House Museum in Naoshima. Photo: Education Images/UIG via Getty Images

Founded in 1989, the Benesse Art Site Naoshima continues to grow and develop, with new installations coming to some of the islands, including Teshima and Inujima. During Singapore Art Week in January, Fukutake awarded the inaugural Asian edition of the Benesse Prize—given at the Venice Biennale since 1995—to Thai artist Pannaphan Yodmanee, whose monumental installation is one of the highlights of the Singapore Biennale. Aftermath, which juxtaposes symbols of Buddhist cosmology with representations of modern urban decay, is on view at the Singapore Art Museum through February 26. Yodmanee has been commissioned to create a site-specific work for the Benesse Art Site Naoshima, becoming one of just a handful of Southeast Asian artists represented there. “I think we are going to be in the age of Asia going forward, and there’s a lot of disparity between rural and urban areas in Asia,” Fukutake says. “And I thought we could bring our approach of rejuvenating and building rural communities through art starting with Singapore and then broadening and roll out this approach through other parts of Asia.”