The Naoshima New Museum of Art in Japan will open with its inaugural exhibition, featuring Martha Atienza as one of 12 selected artists. A new initiative by Benesse Art Site Naoshima, the museum is located on top of a hill near the Honmura district of Naoshima. 

Atienza’s practice explores installation and video as a way of documenting and questioning issues around environment, community, and development. Born to a Dutch mother and Filipino father, Atienza has navigated between these cultures throughout her life, and the oscillation between the two significantly influence her approach to observation, documentation, and the concept of the gaze. In July 2024, Atienza’s work was screened nightly on one of the world’s most iconic public canvases – the electronic billboards of New York Times Square – as the month’s selected Midnight Moment, a public art program by Times Square Arts.

For Art Basel in Basel this June, Martha Atienza will present a three-channel video in the Parcours sector, dedicated to citywide public art installations.

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Launched in the late 1980s, Benesse Art Site Naoshima aspires to build a community through partnerships with locals and a harmony of nature, architecture, and art. It has created a nexus of museums and art facilities, turning Naoshima, Teshima, and Inujima into a place unlike any other in the world. The latest addition to this thirty-five-year endeavor is the Naoshima New Museum of Art. Located in a village, it marks architect Tadao Ando’s tenth contribution to the Benesse Art Site Naoshima constellation of museums and facilities, and is the first to bear the name of the island.

Naoshima New Museum of Art exhibits and collects works by artists from Japan and other parts of Asia. Through occasional and partial rotations of exhibits and various public programs, it aims to convey more diverse perspectives and forms of expression as well as multifaceted messages about the times and society, and be a place of exchange and collaboration for people to visit time and again, and a wide range of locals and visitors to meet.

The inaugural exhibition features representative works and freshly commissioned works by twelve artists and groups, including those who involved with Benesse Art Site Naoshima from its early years, as well as others who have developed a relationship since 2016 when the Benesse Prize moved from Venice to Asia, and also those encountered on research trips in recent years. The works are on view in multiple gallery spaces located on the first floor and two basement floors, as well as the café and outdoor sites. Through the sharp gazes and questions that art casts upon our times, society and the environment, we are encouraged to think about and reaffirm what is “Well-Being” – the idea rooted in the origin of Benesse Art Site Naoshima’s activities that began in Naoshima.

Learn more here.

Martha Atienza (b. 1981, Manila, Philippines; lives and works in Bantayan Island Philippines) is a Dutch-Filipino video artist exploring the format’s ability to document and question issues related to the environment, community, and development. Born to a Dutch mother and Filipino father, Atienza has navigated between these cultures throughout her life, and the oscillation between the two significantly influence her approach to observation, documentation, and the concept of the gaze. Her video is rooted in both ecological and sociological concerns as she studies the intricate interplay between local traditions, human subjectivity, and the natural world. Frequently examining her immediate surroundings, she excels in exploring the potential of art as a catalyst for societal transformation.

She won the Baloise Art Prize in Art Basel for her seminal work Our Islands in 2017. Prior to this, she was twice awarded the Ateneo Art Awards in Manila (2012/2016) and the Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artist Award (2015). Atienza has been selected as one of 12 featured artists in the inaugural exhibition of the Naoshima New Museum of Art, a new platform from Benesse Art Site Naoshima, opening May 2025 in Japan. Recent biennials and triennials include Manifesta 15, Barcelona (2024); Diriyah Biennale: After Rain, Diryah (2024); the 17th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul (2022); Bangkok Art Biennale: Escape Routes, BACC, Bangkok (2020); Honolulu Biennial: To Make Wrong / Right / Now, Oahu, Hawaii (2019); and the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA, Brisbane (2018). Her solo exhibition The Protectors inaugurated Silverlens New York in 2022.