BTS, the seven-member boy band from South Korea, has become a worldwide sensation, buoyed by a passionate fanbase that goes by ARMY. One of the members, RM, has recently become known for his interest in the arts.
Now, he and his fellow band members have revealed some of their favorite artworks in collaboration with Google Street View.
BTS x Street Galleries has each member of the band select some favorite artworks—most of them are public domain works sourced from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection. These pieces are then displayed on Google Street View in a location of their choice.
Suga, for example, chose to display works near the site of the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, the first major American venue where BTS performed.
Many of the band members selected locations that tie back to a moment in the band’s history, a fitting tribute as they are currently celebrating their ninth anniversary. (BTS recently revealed plans to go on hiatus, but its members remain active and still appear together frequently.)
Each of the works come with little blurbs from the band members explaining why they chose that particular piece. Most of the BTS members were attracted to artworks that bear some connection to their own artistic practices as musicians and dancers.
The collaboration will likely turn out to be a successful method to encourage broader audiences to try out Google’s new function Street Galleries. In fact, at the bottom of the BTS x Street Galleries is a “Create Your Own” button that allows users to make their own Street Galleries by using and remixing images that BTS had already selected, plus a few more selected by Google Arts & Culture.
