Takakurakazuki Debuts Ghost Gion Matsuri at PAC-MAN Show

Ghost Gion Matsuri, the new work Takakurakazuki announced for the show, is a bird's-eye pixel panorama of Kyoto with PAC-MAN's ghosts out in force: they wait at crosswalks, cluster near shrine gates and drift past tiled rooftops while a red festival procession snakes through the street grid. Takakurakazuki, born in 1987 and now lecturing at Kyoto University of the Arts, works in pixel animation, 3DCG and VR to reread contemporary art through Buddhist philosophy, "exploring embodiment and ritual through games and characters," as the artist's own statement puts it. The Gion Matsuri began as a ninth-century rite to appease plague spirits, so a parade of arcade ghosts is not a cameo but a homecoming.

It anchors IP-ART EXHIBITION: PAC-MAN, a seven-artist show at BnA Alter Museum, the Kyoto art hotel built around a 10-story vertical gallery. The show is official in the fullest sense: planned by Akiyoshi Mishima, creative director of Bandai Namco's IP-ART program, produced by Bandai Namco Experience with the character's rights holder, and timed to the second Kyoto Station Building Art Festival, which turns the station's grand staircase into a giant game field through Nov. 3. The museum run opens Oct. 17 and hangs through Dec. 13, with every work for sale.

Also showing: Ayaka Nishihara, WEI-NI LU and Riku Matsuzaki, plus the yuzen-dyeing kimono atelier Toyowado, which has reproduced Itō Jakuchū in silk, and GAAAT and ALAGAN.