WRITER AND DIRECTOR: claire laborey
52/67 minutes | France

NAOSHIMA (dream on the tongue) is a journey across a small Japanese island in the Seto inland sea. Since the 90s, it is threatened by exodus, its population decreases and ages, its industry declines.

As a result of a stunning contemporary art sponsoring project, Naoshima is changing. The pure timeless lines of the three museums designed by Tadao Ando, the contemporary artworks on site blend into the landscape, scattered along its shores, in the shadow of the forest.The presence of art is worrying, fascinating, inspiring, upsetting and becomes the beating heart of the island. Through the account of a dream or a memory, an island appears where the presence of art arises from a primitive nature and resonates with the frail permanence of traditions and daily rituals. It unsettles the representations of the locals and confronts them with this haunting question: what is beauty?