Early morning on the 28th, RM posted 2 pgs of “The Time of Plants” from conceptual artist Ahn Kyuchul’s book “The Other Side of Things” on Weverse. The book was published in March and soon after RM posted, it was sold out nationwide offline and online. As of the 31st, +
BTS's RM made a Weverse post on May 28th, 2021 about excerpts from the book "The Other Side of Things" by conceptual artist, Ahn Kyuchul. In these excerpts, Kyuchul talks about how we get restless and lonely unlike the nature around us, and that maybe we should take notes from nature around to learn how to be content to be alone.
One snippet of these excerpts is about how we feel anxious and impatient when we feel like we aren't doing anything...
"When we think of things waiting for the time in silence like a
rock against the ruthless nature, how anxious we are. How petty is our
impatience that we can't stand still for a moment to fill the void of
every moment with something. I hope that this will be a year when I
learn to be ashamed of even the grievances of being alone and of being
lonely or depressed, or that life is meaningful or not."
RM reflected on these excerpts because he had to learn how to accept being by himself due to COVID social distancing as he couldn't be as in contact with ARMY like he once was.
early on the 28th, there were thousands of posts about the book on Twitter and all the books were sold out the next day. We’re rushing to make more books, but we can’t keep up with the rapidly increasing number of orders so there are many people who couldn’t buy the book.” +
Later after these posts, people posted about them on Twitter, and "The Other Side of Things" became sold out on Kyobo Books and Yes24 with plans to restock on June 2nd. Publisher, Hyundai Literature, talked about how they were getting so many orders that they were overwhelmed, and were unable to fulfill all the orders right away.
This isn’t the first time RM has shown interest in art books. Last Sept, he donated ₩100M to the MMCA on his bday to publish art books. He was praised by the art world for saying, “I hope the books will help young people who have fewer opportunities and live in remote areas +
RM has shown care for art books in the past as he had donated₩100M to the MMCA on his birthday for art book publishing.
More than 10k visitors came by in the first week after opening and there were people lining up to see the exhibition every weekend. A Space K official said, “The Magok neighborhood is usually quiet on the weekends bc there are a lot of offices here. +
RM's effect extends further to museums. After rumors spread about him visiting the Hernan Bass exhibition at Space K Seoul in Magok-dong. More than 10,000 people visited in the first week's opening, and they were very busy during the weekends. Which felt odd to the residents as the area is usually quiet.
RM's respect for the arts is admirable, and one can't deny that he is effective at promoting interest in the arts!
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When I think about books, art, nature, philosophy I think about Namjoon.