Dilapidated Building Becomes Temporary Museum: #BCTION Creates a World Interweaving Street Art and Cosplay

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Dilapidated Building Becomes Temporary Museum: #BCTION Creates a World Interweaving Street Art and Cosplay 15

There's an old office building in Kojimachi, Tokyo that's scheduled to be demolished. But before that, an art project transformed the entire building into a museum. The name of the project is BCTION. It's taken from the idea that one action (A) influences the the next action (B) in a chain of creative expansion. This is represented in the equation ACTION x ACTION = BCTION.

Over 70 different rising young artists of various genres and supporters used the entire building, from floor to walls to ceiling, as their art canvas, creating new value out of the urban dead space. Among the artists that participated were some Tokyo Otaku Mode (TOM) Special Creators. It was enormously well received, with over 10,000 people attending over the course of the event.

What would happen if we added cosplayers to these up-and-coming young Tokyo artists’ works? That's one thing we saw taking place at BCTION recently. The atmosphere that the artwork and cosplayers created together is something we want to share with you. It’s up to you to decide whether or not you think the combination is a harmonious one.


SSSK, a special unit comprised of TOM Special Creators MANJI and suwasayaka. Characters drawn by suwasayaka are set up as Neon art in this space. The places where desks used to be are now scattered with printer paper.
MANJI
suwasayaka


A graphic by sister duo HAMADARAKA. Their drawings, dolls, masks and more and have been seen in over 20 exhibitions both in Japan and abroad. They currently do work in magazines, fashion, video production and CD jacket illustrations.


OLEO (RtypeL)
This artist reused only abandoned materials and scrap parts found in the BCTION building to create various sculptures. This work seemed to represent the main concepts of BCTION: Turning a dilapidated building into a museum, and adding new value to a dead urban space.


Toy aliens by female illustrator borutanext5. Most exhibits in BCTION seemed to have a mature atmosphere, but this one stood out with its pop art characters and volleyballs scattered across the floor. Many kids seemed to enjoy playing in this memorable booth.


A drawing by skull artist Kazumichi Maruoka. This potter deals with the theme of death with his ceramic skulls. He has a strong connection to traditional Japanese shado (the art of tea ceremony), and often makes ceramic works for shado instructors. Kazumichi used 555 cigarettes to burn a skull pattern into these tatami mats.


This nostalgic robot by DRAGON76 and GRAVITYFREE, both regulars to the live event scene, reminds us of the fate of the building itself...
DRAGON76
GRAVITYFREE


Some bits of chaos peeking through the pop art color palette of this surreal work by imaone and SOH. Artwork by THA | imaone & SOH.


A mural by art unit WHOLE9. This vividly colored heavenly world stretches from floor to ceiling.


Artist and BCTION organizer MON Koutaro Ooyama's drawing of a demon army reminds one of a video game and Eastern feng shui. At night when it’s lit up by candles and lights, it conjures up a strong fantasy atmosphere.

Much more information about the artists who participated, their works and the concept behind the exhibit can be found on the BCTION official webpage. Be sure to check it out if you’re interested!

BCTION Official Site
BCTION YouTube Channel

Many staff members, artists, and visitors to the exhibition are uploading photos. Please search with the hashtags below:
#BCTION
@BCTION
　
Twitter: #BCTION
Instagram: #BCTION

This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article.

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