Namjoon’s Exhibition Audio Guide: What RM Says in Each Room at SFMOMA

Namjoon‘s exhibition audio guide is out, and I don’t even know where to start. SFMOMA released on its own website the audio that accompanies the exhibition RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me, and that changes everything for those who, like me, are on the other side of the continent with no ticket to San Francisco anytime soon. We can’t walk through the rooms, unfortunately, but we can hear Namjoon introducing each one of them and commenting on the works, with that English full of “like” and “hmm” of someone thinking out loud.

And thinking out loud is exactly what he’s doing, because nothing there was read from a script. Below you’ll find a summary of what Namjoon says in each part of the audio guide, with the works he mentions in each room and some comments of mine along the way (I couldn’t keep quiet, sorry).

The eight sections, the pairs of works and the opening speech of Namjoon’s exhibition I covered in detail in another article. Here the subject is only his voice. And our gratitude to Camis, who translated everything for our Telegram channel.

Quick answer: where to listen to Namjoon’s exhibition audio guide

• Where to listen: on SFMOMA’s website, on the page Explore the exhibition with RM, from anywhere in the world;
• Languages: English and Korean. There’s no Portuguese version.
• How many parts: 11. A preface, one part for each of the eight sections of the exhibition (Umber has two) and the credits.
• Who narrates: Namjoon himself. The credits are narrated by co-curator América Castillo.
• At the exhibition: visitors listen on their own phones, so bring headphones.

How the RM x SFMOMA exhibition audio guide was made

As the museum presents it, the idea is for Namjoon to talk about each room in his own way, from small everyday things to life’s big questions. And there’s a production note I found lovely:

According to the note, to keep RM’s voice authentic in both his first and second languages, the audio guide was made in two languages from two separate, unscripted interviews, one in Korean and one in English, instead of being translated. That’s why the content and the experience are a little different between the English and Korean versions.

In other words: each version was born from its own conversation, unscripted, in a different language. So if you understand Korean and English, it’s really worth listening to both versions. The summary below follows the English version.

An interesting detail: in the audio, he introduces himself as 31, while in the catalog preface he already says 32. Everything suggests the recording was made before his birthday, on September 12. Or taking Korean age into account.

What Namjoon says in each part of the audio guide

Namjoon’s audio guide follows the exhibition route, from the first blue room to Yun’s umber. In each part, you’ll find what he says, the works mentioned and a comment of mine.

Namjoon’s audio guide, part 1: Preface, “Welcome to my world”

Namjoon introduces himself as RM, leader of BTS, a 31-year-old from South Korea, and asks to be called Namjoon, or just Joon, because the exhibition is about personal things. He describes the Korean feeling of seolleim, that good anticipation of what’s about to happen, and compares the exhibition to a dinner the curators prepared for him.

He talks about envying painting, a single object you stand in front of, while music lives everywhere, in the car or in the shower, and concludes that they’re all the same language. He makes albums because his feelings can’t be translated into words alone, and the exhibition comes from the same place. If visitors leave with a good memory or a bit of curiosity, he says, that’s enough. And he welcomes everyone to his world.

Call me Joon. I won’t get over that anytime soon. And seolleim (설렘), that good anxiety of waiting for something to happen, is exactly what I feel every time BTS announces anything.

Namjoon’s audio guide, part 2: Blue Water

Blue has been his favorite color since he was little, and he loves how many meanings the word has in English: the sky, the water and our feelings can all be blue. That’s why the exhibition starts with blue, and with water, where we all come from.

The room opens with a painting by Kim Whanki, known for the “Whanki blue”. Namjoon tells how Kim died in New York in 1974, how his widow tried to donate his paintings to American institutions when he wasn’t famous yet, and how she gave this one to SFMOMA in 1979. He also brought a small Kim painting from his own living room, so the two could meet. Then he talks about Roni Horn’s glass sculpture, which looks like ice or water and makes everyone want to touch it (please don’t): for him, that’s the fun of sculpture, because the material always tricks your imagination.

Works mentioned:

• Kim Whanki, 26-I-70 #141
• Roni Horn, Untitled (‘But the boomerang that returns is not the same one I threw.’)

The Kim Whanki painting that his widow couldn’t donate because, back then, the artist still wasn’t famous in the United States now opens one of the most talked-about exhibitions of the year. Poetic justice, is that what it’s called?

Namjoon’s audio guide, part 3: Friendscape

He explains the pun in the title: animals and landscapes are our friends, so landscape became friendscape. He shows paintings he rotates in his bedroom according to the season, because Koreans are very sensitive to the four seasons: an autumn view of a palace garden by To Sangbong, a winter landscape with two ducks by Kim Chong Hak and a summer mountain by Park Kosuk. He even forgets the word “bedroom” in the middle of the explanation.

He jokes that an institution would never hang things like this, but since he’s not an official curator, he can. And he ends with wooden geese from the Joseon dynasty, made for newlyweds, that always make him feel at home.

Works mentioned:

• Park Kosuk, Outer Seorak
• To Sangbong, Landscape of Gwangneung
• Kim Chong Hak, Winter Landscape
• Unknown artist, Wooden Geese

A man who changes the painting in his bedroom according to the season and forgets the word “bedroom” in the middle of the explanation. So cute.

Namjoon’s audio guide, part 4: Home

For Namjoon, art can be a home and a horror film at the same time: some works make him feel safe, others push him out of his cage. He talks about 18th- and 19th-century wooden furniture and how wood and stone make him feel at home, recalling his mentor’s words that one day we all return to the earth, the true home.

Then he describes Son Sangki’s large painting Artificial City: Irony, a rich living room painted by an artist who lived with a disability and painted Seoul’s walls before demolition. The work makes him uncomfortable, and he likes that: it reminds him that he made a lot of money very young and asks him whether he’s using it well, something he says he’s still figuring out.

Works mentioned:

• Unknown artist, Three-tier Open Shelf Unit
• Unknown artist, Scholar’s Desk
• Son Sangki, Artificial City: Irony

Remember the “boring rich guy” from the exhibition’s opening speech? He was already here, in this room, looking at a painting that bothers him on purpose. And he chose to leave that discomfort on display in the room that represents his home.

Namjoon’s audio guide, part 5: Photobuddha

In this room, a Buddha watches a TV, the same way we look at our phones every day. It’s Nam June Paik’s installation questioning technology and religion, and Namjoon jokes that maybe the Buddha likes watching people: “we are his TV.” When you get close, the screen shows you next to the Buddha, like the photo booths that are part of everyday life in Korea.

He says he goes to a temple at least three times a year, even without following a specific religion, and that he loves the story of the Buddha as a human being. He also tells how SFMOMA had a drawing of TV Buddha while he owned the actual work, so they put the two together. His suggestion: take a selfie with the Buddha and think about what it means.

Works mentioned:

• Nam June Paik, Enlightenment Compressed
• Nam June Paik, Untitled (TV Buddha)

“We are his TV.” I loved that.

Namjoon’s audio guide, part 6: People

Namjoon finds it funny that people paint people, and says that at retrospectives he always lingers longest in front of the self-portraits, like Rembrandt’s at different ages. He reminds us that even big names like Picasso or Matisse were just people, and that there’s always someone behind the frame.

He shows a Han Youngsoo photograph of an ordinary couple in 1950s Seoul, right after the Korean War: they look so stylish that it made him rethink the image of a poor, sad past, and imagine his own parents dating. The photo used to hang in his parents’ house, and he tells, laughing, how he simply took it for the exhibition, and how his parents sometimes ask for things back.

Work mentioned:

• Han Youngsoo, Deoksugung Palace, Jeong-Dong, Seoul

A son who “borrows” something from his parents’ house and never gives it back: universal. Everyone has one. Sometimes it’s a Tupperware, sometimes it’s a Han Youngsoo photograph.

Namjoon’s audio guide, part 7: Passion

These are artists who truly lived their lives, he says. In an era full of noise, from YouTube to Instagram, they remind him that he can always go further. He highlights Park Rehyun’s abstract painting: her husband, also a great painter, was deaf, so she called herself a “three-way translator”, being his voice and ears while raising four children and painting.

Namjoon admits he can’t imagine doing all that without even a washing machine. He doesn’t know if these artists made him a better musician, but they made him a better person, teaching him that there’s no free lunch: reaching another world costs your whole life.

Work mentioned:

• Park Rehyun, Work

“There was no washing machine.” A 31-year-old man acknowledging, in a museum audio guide, the domestic work that existed behind a woman artist’s work. Write that down, because it’s rare. Namjoonie, I love you.

Namjoon’s audio guide, part 8: I Don’t Know But I Like It

One of his favorite sections, just because of its honest title: sometimes you feel pressure to explain why you like a work, but in fine art you can simply look and like it. These are pieces that seemed to call out to him to take them home.

He tells how he met Yoshitomo Nara in 2023, just before his military service, at an exhibition in Seoul, and how these ceramics remind him of old Korean porcelain painted by Nara. He prefers the cheaper black ones painted with iron, and remembers that, instead of champagne at the opening, Nara brought makgeolli and drank it from a paper cup.

Work mentioned:

• Yoshitomo Nara, We are Outlaws

“Take me to your house.” Every collector (of art, of albums, of photocards) knows that voice. And nobody can resist it. I’m going to use that excuse when I see my credit card bill.

Namjoon’s audio guide, part 9: Umber I

Everyone wants him to explain why Yun Hyong-keun is so special, but he can’t, because he loves him too much: he even used a Yun painting on an album cover and sees him as a teacher, in art and in life. He tells how he missed Yun’s big retrospective at Korea’s MMCA and then flew to Venice in the summer of 2019 just to see the show at Palazzo Fortuny, where he saw a girl leaving in tears and understood why as soon as he walked in. That’s when he really began to admire Korean artists.

He talks about the history Yun lived through, from Japanese colonization to the Korean War and the division of the country, and how he put his anger on the canvas with fury and grace at the same time, in brushstrokes that look like Western painting and calligraphy at once.

He took a plane to Venice just to see a Yun exhibition. Not the whole Biennale, just Yun. That, my love, is devotion. And the album cover he mentions is Indigo‘s, the record that opens with a song called, precisely, Yun:

Namjoon’s audio guide, part 10: Umber II

He explains the arc of the exhibition: it began with Kim Whanki, Yun’s father-in-law and teacher, and ends with Yun, who probably saw Rothko, Guston and Pollock in New York but painted differently because he lived a different life. The last room puts Korean and American, RM and SFMOMA, side by side, which is why the subtitle is “Between You and Me”: Kim begins with blue, the sky and water, and Yun completes it with the earth.

Namjoon says he always runs out of words when talking about Yun, even though he’s a man of words who once wanted to be a writer, and that the exhibition is an attempt to bring different languages together. He calls it a total mess of his own at 31, and admits he doesn’t want to make albums on autopilot just because it’s time: he wanted help from these amazing people.

In the article about Namjoon’s exhibition, I pointed out that the route starts in the sky, with Kim Whanki, and ends on earth, with Yun. He confirmed it here, in his own words: sky and earth, blue and umber. And he even let slip the reason for everything: he doesn’t want to make any album on autopilot, just because “it’s time”. He wants to be helped by these incredible people. That sentence is going to stay with me for a long time.

Namjoon’s audio guide, part 11: Credits

The audio guide closes with the credits (END CREDITS), read by co-curator América Castillo.

She explains that the audio guide was narrated by RM and produced by Haeryun Kang, with support from Fengxue Zhang, and that the project was made possible by the partnership with Big Hit Music, HYBE and HYBE INSIGHT and the support of Samsung Electronics.

The soundtrack to listen along

If you want to complete the experience, SFMOMA also published the RM x SFMOMA playlist on Spotify, with 10 songs and 34 minutes. It has Younger Days, by Sanullim, Just Wrong, by Pino Palladino and Blake Mills, Track 3, by Lee Sora, and Dream, by Ryuichi Sakamoto, among others.

Frequently asked questions about Namjoon’s audio guide

Some questions about Namjoon’s audio guide always come up. I answered the main ones here, briefly.

Where can I listen to Namjoon’s exhibition audio guide?

The audio guide for the exhibition RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me is available on SFMOMA’s website, on the page Explore the exhibition with RM. You can listen from anywhere, without having to be at the museum.

Does Namjoon’s audio guide have a Portuguese version?

No. Namjoon’s audio guide exists in English and Korean. In this article, we summarize what he says in each part of the English version.

Are the English version and the Korean version the same?

They’re different. According to SFMOMA, the two versions were produced from two separate, unscripted interviews, one in each language, so the content changes from one to the other.

How many parts does Namjoon’s audio guide have?

There are 11 parts: Preface, Blue Water, Friendscape, Home, Photobuddha, People, Passion, I Don’t Know But I Like It, Umber I, Umber II and the credits. The Umber room, dedicated to Yun Hyong-keun, is the only one with two parts, and the credits are narrated by co-curator América Castillo.

Who produced the RM x SFMOMA audio guide?

The audio guide was narrated by Namjoon and produced by Haeryun Kang, with support from Fengxue Zhang, in partnership with BigHit Music, HYBE and HYBE INSIGHT, and with support from Samsung Electronics. The English narration and the Korean narration came from separate interviews, recorded without a script.

Put on your headphones and enjoy

An art exhibition is usually an experience that only exists inside the museum. Namjoon said that right in the preface, with a hint of envy of music, which can play anywhere: in the car, in the shower, in the air. Well, Namjoon’s audio guide made exactly that crossing. It took a piece of the exhibition and put it in the air, for those who can’t be there.

Standing in front of a Yun Hyong-keun, in person, is still another story. In the meantime, you can hear Namjoon explaining why he loses his words in front of him. And, honestly, that already won me over. Open the audio guide on SFMOMA’s site, put the playlist on afterwards and tell me: which room would you like to visit today, and why is the answer all of them?