BTS funds global art project featuring Antony Gormley that takes 22 modern artists and their work to 5 cities
The Korean pop band BTS can soon add another crown to their list of achievements — they've just announced that they will be patrons of modern art all over the world.
On January 14, details were released of the K-pop band's new contemporary art venture, which will feature technically challenging and experimental art projects in cities like London, Seoul, New York, Berlin, and Buenos Aires by artists who resonate with the band's philosophy and principles. With a fanbase of over 90 million people worldwide on social media, BTS sees this idea as an opportunity to introduce modern art to a newer, younger audience — their fans are collectively known as the BTS Army.
Art curator Daehyung Lee, the creator of the 'Connect, BTS' initiative, said the project was rooted in the idea of solidarity when he initially approached the band with the idea. Lee said, "We can connect with people at opposite ends of the world but we sometimes forget to communicate with our own neighbors or relatives. We are losing solidarity, we have forgotten how to communicate properly with each other."
BTS will be the main sponsors of the global art project that will involve 22 artists and take place across the world in the coming months. While the total cost has been kept under wraps, Daehyung said it would not be a million-dollar project. "The ultimate goal of the project is to connect individuals across the world as they re-evaluate their present circumstances, attitudes, and potentialities," he stated.
This worldwide art initiative will involve famous contemporary artists like Antony Gormley, who will be installing a sculpture using 11 miles of coiled up aluminum tubing next to the East River in Brooklyn, New York.
It will be a new version of his previous installation 'Clearing', which was showcased at his recent Royal Academy show in London, and consisted of 4 miles of metal rod coiled up like a drawing in space. This new piece, said to be called 'New York Clearing 2020', will use more than double the materials of Gormley's initial project, and will be installed outdoors, without barriers, at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 3. It will also be made open to the public as a thoroughfare.
"'Clearing' has always been made inside an existing architectural space," said Gormley. "We still don’t know whether this is going to work. We still don't know whether, in the wind and the cold of New York in January, this will hold. But what an incredible thing... and with BTS's help, we are going to try to make this thing."
Another project, which involves the Argentinian artist Tomás Saraceno, will attempt to float a human being up into the sky powered only by solar and wind power. Saraceno's project is titled 'Fly With Aerocene Pacha', which he said was a possible solution to the dilemma of human flight, a dream which has currently turned into a nightmare.
"Every time someone travels across the Atlantic by airplane another person's lifespan is reduced by two years," said the artist.
Meanwhile, in London, the Danish artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen has created a digital simulation of a forest called 'Catharsis'. It can be viewed at the Serpentine Gallery or via catharsis.live till March 15. This initiative was announced at the Serpentine Gallery along with a live video feed of the seven-member BTS K-pop group voicing their support and stating their desire to "send a positive message to the world" and "give back some of the amazing love that we receive". They also said that this project "represents diversity and creates a collective, positive message for the world that we value". We're looking forward to more of the same from the group in the future!