Korean-based K-pop superstars BTS announced this month their intention to launch a global collaborative art project to promote connection, community, love for the world, and global unity. It features an innovative hot air balloon on a mission.
BTS – a popular seven-member boy-band – have come up with this collaboration as a way to bring their audience, and the members of the public who encounter these art installations, into a dialogue with the performance itself. It is an attempt to democratise art and to, in the words of BTS, ‘send a positive message for the world’.
The project, called ‘Connect, BTS’, brings together 22 artists from around the world – including South Korea, Argentina, the UK, and Germany – to engage audiences in art and music in unusual ways.
The hot air balloon that joins this global exhibition is designed by the Argentinian artist Tomas Saraceno. The balloon will be made from recycled plastic bags and Saraceno intends it to travel from London to Seoul, crossing through Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan on its own steam without consuming fossil fuels.
The balloon will be propelled by natural elements: as the air in the balloon heats up thanks to the sun it will rise, while the wind will carry the balloon along.
BTS fans will be able to track the progress of the balloon – which is expected to make this journey in just nine days – online.
If any K-pop fans in your life want to also experience the magic of hot air balloon flight (albeit on a more local scale), we offer hot air balloon flights in Bath, Bristol and other regions in the South West.
