Why did you choose to work with Jakob Kudsk Steensen for this project?

The Ursula le Guin and Jung references resonate wonderfully with the work of Jakob Steensen. The ideas and references of BTS connect them. Kim Nam-joon (also known as RM) is obsessed with galleries and museums. He sees art as a portal into other worlds, which is similar to how Jakob sees his forest as a portal.

We also felt that we’ve worked with Jakob but we never did an exhibition with him. We worked with him on a project in a park which was our first augmented reality architecture competition with David Adjaye last summer. We always thought it’d be interesting to have a digital pavilion and that Jakob could build us this augmented reality digital pavilion on several locations in the park. In addition to him being the perfect match with BTS, we felt it would be wonderful to push [Connect, BTS] a step further because he had this idea of a forest which was unrealised, and we’re always into making unrealised artist projects happen.

Steensen said in a video with BTS that Catharsis works with its architecture. Can you tell me more about the relationship between Catharsis and the architecture of the Serpentine gallery itself?

The audience is immersed in a digital simulation of a very old, reimagined forest that’s grown – maybe over centuries – undisturbed. We thought it would be amazing to connect it to the Sackler Gallery; that the idea of the forest would be very beautiful here in Kensington Gardens because we are surrounded by trees. As we always say, a day without seeing a tree is a waste of a day. Not only can we now see the trees in the park but we can also see Jakob’s trees. It’s interesting because together with Matt McCorkle, his collaborator, he matched this virtual ecosystem and the sound is synchronised. You, as a viewer, are immersed in the forest and you can emerge from the watery, wet underground, from the roots to a viewpoint of the canopy. You make that movement – that’s the catharsis. It’s also interesting that it’s a rather slow experience, so it’s also about slowness in a way. It’s slowing the viewer down.