In 2020, when BTS launched CONNECT, BTS under the curatorial direction of Daehyung Lee, I remember thinking: this is unusual. A Kpop group funding global contemporary art, stepping back so other artists could take the space. It asked what connection looks like when it is built, not performed.
CONNECT unfolded during Map of the Soul: 7, an era about shadow and integration. Outwardly, they were practicing what the album suggested inwardly: plurality.
They decentralized themselves. They shifted attention from idol to collective. It felt less like branding and more like bridge-building.
Now, buildings in Seongsu wrapped in red and white tape ask: What is your love song? The question interrupts the street. It slows the body. In the context of Arirang, a folk song carried across generations, that question becomes communal. A love song is not owned. It is remembered, passed on, sung again.
If CONNECT was about network, Arirang feels like root. CONNECT moved through art institutions. Arirang moves through the public space. Gwhanghwamun Square. This is a shift from curated space to common space, from vertical strucyures to horizontal chorus. Not kingship. Kinship.
I return to CONNECT because I see the arc. From building connections across cities to asking ordinary people what song holds them together. From infrastructure to inheritance. Perhaps this is the deeper work: not just releasing music, but rehearsing community until we realize we were never outside the song. We, ARMY, most especially, were always part and participants of the story of BTS.
Apobangpo! Purple and true!
Connect ebook: https://www.scribd.com/.../501858075/Connect-Bts-E-book-en
Connect Video Compilation: https://youtube.com/playlist...
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