K-pop boy band BTS brings Antony Gormley’s ‘New York Clearing’ to Brooklyn Bridge Park

Top British sculptor Antony Gormley’s “giant drawing in space” opened Wednesday at Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 3 as part of an international public art project, Connect, BTS. The project is a collaboration between popular South Korean boy band BTS, who introduced the project’s New York City installation, and a select group of artists in cities around the globe. The installation, “New York Clearing” (2020), will be open to the public from February 5 to March 27, 2020.

“New York Clearing” (2020) was conceived as a single line comprised of over 11 miles of square looped and coiled aluminum tubing, over 50 feet high, with no beginning or end, that “counters the grid of modernism and the city with swooping lines of energy.” “Clearing” will be situated at Pier 3 on Brooklyn Bridge Park’s waterfront. Previously, Gormley’s “Event Horizon” was on view in Madison Square in 2010 as part of another international multi-part site installation.

The artist said in a press release, “This is the first time that I have attempted to make ‘Clearing’ without architectural support. I am enormously excited about the opportunity of making this energy field in conversation with Manhattan across the waters of the East River. It can be seen as an evocation of human connectivity, a materialisation of the energy of the people that view it and the people that made it.”

Connect, BTS is a global public art project involving 22 contemporary artists in five cities on four continents, in Berlin, Buenos Aires, London, New York and Seoul. The project is being developed by curators under the artistic direction of independent Korean curator Daehyung Lee. Visitors will be able to access special artwork introduction videos recorded by BTS via the Connect, BTS official website (www.connect-bts.com) by clicking on “Secret Docent.”

Antony Gormley, work in Progress for “NEW YORK CLEARING,” (2020). Approx 18km (11mi) of 25.4 mm (1in) square section aluminium and steel spigots. Installation view, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 3, New York City, 2020. Photograph by Scott Rudd © the artist

Antony Gormley, work in Progress for “NEW YORK CLEARING,” (2020). Approx 18km (11mi) of 25.4 mm (1in) square section aluminium and steel spigots. Installation view, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 3, New York City, 2020. Photograph by Scott Rudd © the artist

BTS launched “Connect, BTS” in January ahead of their upcoming studio album, “Map of the Soul: 7,” beginning at London’s Serpentine Galleries with the launch of “Catharsis” by Danish artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen. In Argentina, Tomás Saraceno will “float” a human into the sky using a solar-powered balloon. In Seoul, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza will host works that will be a “re-imagining of BTS’ signature dance movements” by British artist Ann Veronica Janssens and Korean artist Yiyun Kang; a performance art program, “Rituals of Care,” will be hosted in Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau.

Antony Gormley, work in Progress for “NEW YORK CLEARING,” (2020). Approx 18km (11mi) of 25.4 mm (1in) square section aluminium and steel spigots. Installation view, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 3, New York City, 2020. Photograph by Scott Rudd © the artist

Antony Gormley

By connecting with the 22 contemporary artists involved in the project, BTS is creating the opportunity for a “fruitful and democratic cross-pollination between the worlds of rarefied visual art and pop music.” This project allows the band to further support contemporary art.

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