Yukari Stenlund
IASPIS expert visit in Stockholm 2 – 6 June 2024
Yukari Stenlund, Public Relations Officer for Benesse Art Site Naoshima (Japan). Yukari Stenlund has been the Public Relations Manager for Benesse Art Site Naoshima since 2017. She is in charge of public relations for Benesse House, a museum and art site which features architecture by Tadao Ando, and notable artworks such as Yayoi Kusama’s, “Pumpkin” and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s “Glass Teahouse Mondrian.” In 2022, she devised the communication strategies for the Hiroshi Sugimoto Gallery; Time Corridors which showcases Hiroshi Sugimoto’s various works, and the Valley Gallery, which showcases architecture by Tadao Ando and works by Yayoi Kusama and Tsuyoshi Ozawa.
Since 2019, in collaboration with the Singapore Art Museum, she has spearheaded the public relations effort for the Benesse Prize and coordinated the selection process, awards ceremony and exhibition in Naoshima. The “Benesse Prize” was initiated in 1995 at the Venice Biennale. It began as a way to recognize outstanding artists’ creative activities. From the “11th Benesse Prize (2016),” the base was shifted to Asia, where it was resurrected as an official award of the Singapore Biennale in collaboration with the Singapore Art Museum. Yukari is currently working with the most recent awardee, Haegue Yang, on a collaborative exhibition with Apichatpong Weerasethakul that opens this year.
In addition to her public relations duties, Yukari coordinates with Kagwa prefecture to promote the Setouchi triennale, one of the biggest Art Festivals in Japan and is a member of the Sustainability Activities Department of Benesse Holdings, where she promotes sustainable community activities and social contributions through art. She lives and works in Naoshima which is internationally recognized as an “art island” due to its many contemporary art museums.