Buildings get old — most office towers aren’t designed to stand for centuries, as they once were. In Tokyo, a team of artists and curators got permission to interrupt this a near-perpetual cycle of construction and demolition by throwing one last party inside a tower destined for the scrap heap.
The project was called Bction, and it brought together 70 street artists to transform the bare interior of an ageing office building in the Tokyo neighbourhood of Kojimachi for a month-long party before it was torn down. They painted murals over drywall, coated the columns with gold spray paint, hung alien-like chandeliers from the drop ceilings, and let paint soak into the cheap office carpet. They even managed to blanket the urinals in text and paintings.
It totally plays into classic cinematic portrayals of employees destroying their offices — either through a conflagration set to the sound of the Pixies or with a baseball bat in the middle of a field — except it’s a hell of a lot cooler looking, and also a little less violent. The show is over now, and the building is awaiting its fate — but with a far more fabulous coat of paint on it. Check out some of the best shots below. [Bction; Spoon & Tamago]