After gracing the ramps of the Guggenheim with their pop-projecting presence, BTS have turned their eyes to another museum as part of a marketing campaign for its latest world tour. This time, the K-pop group is in league with the British Museum in London, where visitors can see a showcase of artworks in the institution’s Korea Foundation Gallery, chosen in collaboration with curator Sang-ah Kim.
The Guggenheim gambit was a private affair during which BTS performed amid a Carol Bove retrospective, for the cameras of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The British Museum move, meanwhile, is a public happening organized as part of a citywide art trail to promote a world tour around BTS’s latest album.
As stated on the British Museum’s website, “BTS’s fifth studio album ARIRANG takes its motif from the Korean folk song that has become an enduring symbol of Korean identity and cultural heritage. So, in celebration of our new show-stopping exhibition ‘Korea,’ exploring 2,000 years of creativity on the peninsula, we’ve created a trail around The Korea Foundation Gallery of five objects exploring those themes.”
The “Korea” exhibition cited opens in October, and the five objects showcased in advance include a sarangbang (scholar’s room), a moon jar, a store of treasures from the Silla Kingdom, gold earrings, and two roof tiles.
Meanwhile, 5,000 miles away, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is gearing up for “RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me,” which opens in October with artworks from the personal collection of BTS star RM along with others pieces from the museum’s collection. Korean artists to be featured in that include Yun Hyong-keun, Park Rehyun, Kwon Okyon, Kim Yun Shin, To Sangbong, and Chang Ucchin, and they’ll be accompanied by Mark Rothko, Agnes Martin, Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Paul Klee.
