BTS experiments with exhibitions across continents

‘Connect, BTS’, Seoul

K-pop boyband BTS launches global art project ‘Connect, BTS’ with 22 contemporary artists across five international cities.
Connect BTS is a project that collaboratively experiments with exhibitions across continents that connect different languages, races and cultures in five cities: London, Berlin, Seoul, Buenos Aires and New York – in a relationship based on art philosophy.
The exhibition starts in the Serpentine Gallery in London and will be on display until late March. Groupius Bau in Berlin, Salt desert in Buenos Aires, and Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York also participate.

In the Seoul leg of the exhibition, four works are shown: ‘Green-Yellow-Pink’, ‘Rose’, ‘Beyond the Scene’ and the five cities’ exhibition archives.
The exhibition space in Seoul was planned taking into consideration spatial and empirical characteristics utilizing the effects of light. Arktonic, who is responsible for the space design, tried to combine the two artists’ materialization of light into one sequence. This is an extension of the senses and stimulates the five senses that were dominated by the vision to provide a synesthesia experience.

In planning the exhibition space, the first consideration was the combination of the works of ‘Green-Yellow-Pink’, ‘Rose’, ‘Beyond the Scene’ and the archive display boxes of the exhibitions of five cities into one. Light became an important element in the narrative that weaves each exhibition composition together. Light leaking from each exhibition space is softly reflected by the stainless-steel floor panel and scattered throughout the exhibition space.

An Veronica Janssen’s ‘Green-Yellow-Pink’ glows between two black masses with a large title ‘Connect BTS’ at the entrance. It is in the form of a circular cylinder, 15 meters in diameter, and 4 meters in height. The enormous circular space adds depth to the reflection of the stainless-steel floor panel, as if floating on a lake.
‘Green-Yellow-Pink’ creates a meditative and poetic space by adding form and texture to the colored lights in a space filled with fog, which obstructs the field of view, concentrating on the other senses and discovering things that were not captured by sight. ‘Rose’ amplifies the three-dimensional effect by displaying the sculptural form of light through seven lighting and fog effects.
Kang Yiyun’s ‘Beyond the Scene’ is a projection mapping that is inspired by, and reinterprets, the main choreography of BTS. Through the space-time narrative, the viewer creates a sympathetic experience.

Five display boxes are placed low on the reflective panels in the archive zone and the process o the birth of each work is shown through a three-dimensional spatial experience, rather than via a typical horizontal relationship.

Project: Connect BTS, Seoul / Location: Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Design Exhibition Hall, Seoul / Art director: Daehyung Lee / Architect: Arktonic (Sangwook Park) / Archive design: Yongju Kim / Graphic design: Dohyung Kim / Artist: Green Yellow Pink & Rose (Ann Veronica Janssens); Beyond the Scenes (Yiyun Kang); Archive Exhibition (Antony Gormley, Tomas Saraceno, etc) / Project manager: Sungmin Abe Chung, Jiwon Choi, Saetbyul Kim / Exhibition team: Somi Hong, Boreum Oh, Jisoo Park, Ryoung Jo Alice Han, Iejin Choi / Area: 1,216m² (Green Pink Yellow_43.96m²; Rose_54m²; Beyond the Scene_8 x 8 x 5.5 m; Archive Exhibition 5 Glass Boxes _1 X 1 X 1m) / Materials: Green Pink Yellow (Polycarbonate U panel, Barrisol Ceilings, Steel Frame, LED Lighting); Rose (Wood, Paint Finish, Tungsten Lighting); Beyond the Scene (Wood, Paint Finish, Mirror Film Floor, Projection Mapping); Archive Exhibition (Stainless Panel , Glass Showcase) / Exhibition period: 2020.1.28 ~ 2020.3.20 / Photographer: ©Jun-Ho Jang (courtesy of the architect)