[Pre-Chorus Jimin, Jin]

이뤄지지 않는 꿈속에서

In a dream that wouldn’t come true

피울 수 없는 꽃을 키웠어

I grew a flower that couldn’t bloom

Based on K-pop boyband BTS’ hit track FAKE LOVE, this workshop invites you to explore experiences of ‘fake love’ in its different forms in neoliberal society, from romantic love and dating to institutional mission statements and workplace etiquette. The BTS song lyrics speak to wearing masks, losing oneself, and echoes the exhaustion of performing love and loyalty within systems, whether romantic, institutional, or colonial, that demand everything while offering little in return, leaving us fatigued by the very promises we’re told to believe in.

I’m so sick of this

fake love fake love fake love!

I’m so sorry but it’s

fake love fake love fake love!

We’ll begin with a short tour of the exhibition Fake Love & Institutional Longing (BTS) with independent curator Amrita Dhallu and artist and poet‑in‑residence Mandy Merzaban, whose work traces encounters with K‑pop, Orientalism, colonial archives and institutional bureaucracy.

Please bring a text that you might categorise as ‘fake love’ such as pop song lyrics, an email, a ghosted text message, a financial letter, a job rejection letter, a policy document, an employment contract, a news article. We’ll use it as raw material for poetry writing with text and images from exhibition research.

Participants are encouraged to spend some time in the exhibition before the workshop to explore some of the audio/visual material.

Mandy Merzaban is an artist and writer whose practice in poetic listening and eavesdropping explores how power shapes language, silence, and care within institutional life. Working across experimental poetry, drawing, and text-based media, her work examines organisational cultures and their emotional architectures. In 2025, she published a heart gills with Short Pieces That Move, Rotterdam, and was Poet-in-Residence at John Hansard Gallery. She has held fellowships at Tate and Delfina Foundation (2022) and was founding curator at Barjeel Art Foundation (2009–2018).

Amrita Dhallu is an independent curator, editor and researcher based in the South East of England. She provides support structures for artists through commissioning, editorial projects and creating artistic networks. Working across installation, performance, publishing and aural records, she builds embodied curatorial frameworks that centre polyvocality and collaborative research. She is currently Associate Curator at Grand Union, Birmingham.