Dan Acher Brings the Northern Lights to Frieze Seoul

In his installation Borealis, Swiss artivist Dan Acher uses digital projections and sound to recreate the northern lights in cities around the world, in a temporal happening that makes people slow down, share an experience and reflect. His intention, he says, is to get people to wonder at the world and question our relationship to it: ‘Why is this happening here? Is technology going to replace everything we need from nature?’

The installation – accompanied by an original musical score by French composer Guillaume Desbois – was first shown in 2016, and has since been touring the world. This September, it was presented at Seoul’s Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) with the support of LG OLED, coinciding with Seoul Art Week and Frieze Seoul 2023. To reach the installation, visitors in the Korean capital were invited to walk through a gate made of 24 curved LG OLED screens which featured a video of people experiencing Acher's Borealis across the world.

‘I believe art has a big role to play in social change,’ says Acher, ‘so I use art to create change. Here, the message is about coming together beyond differences. Whatever your origin, your religion, your political beliefs, we are here sharing the same emotion, this sense of expansion.’

Watch Acher’s work illuminate the Korean skies and hear from the artist himself in this film shot at LG OLED x FRIEZE NIGHT, which celebrated the opening of Frieze Seoul with live performances by DJ Vakki and Beenzino, all beneath the incredible lights of Borealis.