Everything You Need To Know About The Door In BTS's "SHADOW" Comeback Trailer

This particular phrase from Carl Jung‘s quote, “The dream is the small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul,” has been thematic for BTS in many ways. Most significantly, it was written on the chalkboard behind RM in BTS’s “Persona” album trailer.

This “small hidden door” resurfaces and presents itself in a more prominent light in BTS’s latest MAP OF THE SOUL: 7 album trailer, which is actually Suga‘s solo “Interlude: Shadow”.

While many theories have come of what the door could mean, it is most likely an inspiration drawn from a British Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor‘s installation art called “Svayambh” — which in Sanskrit means “self-made” or “auto-generated”.

During his talk at Hirshhorn Museum, Anish Kapoor explained that the installation is meant to show the “transition” of an object making itself.

What I did was cast a block of wax and set it on rails and moved it through the building. And it, you know, takes the form of the doors. It’s as if the building is some kind of… forgive the phrase, but shitting this thing. Pushing it out. Forcing it.

— Anish Kapoor

That, in combination with Carl Jung’s quote, yields a new potential interpretation of the door in “Shadow”.

Behind the door lies the dream, the love, the happiness. To go through this “small hidden door” though, Suga must first fit through the door — or as in the sculptor’s words, be shat through the door. Notice how in the trailer, it almost looks like Suga is set on a rail to be pushed through the door:

And in the process, and what is not an easy process, parts of Suga will be lost — symbolized by the red wax remnants around the door — but that is the price to pay. Only this self-making or auto-generating will let Suga reach the “deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul”. Though afraid, he eventually will fit through the door. And so, everyone eventually will too.

I wondered everyday how far I’d go, I came to my senses and I find myself here. I’m afraid, flying high is terrifying. No one told me how lonely it is up here. I can leap in the air but also plunge, now I know.

— Suga in “Shadow”

Though no part of this new interpretation is for certain, the idea has turned ARMYs speechless. The trailer continues to awe with the pure depth of its message — and thus building crazy anticipation for the full album.

Watch the sculptor’s talk here: