Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience

Some time ago I went with friends to see "Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience" at Peres Park in Holon. The exhibition, which made its way to Israel from Europe, features 900 of Van Gogh's creations in a unique 360° sound and light show. The different periods in Van Gogh's life and the stories behind his paintings take on a new dimension and, thanks to cutting edge virtual projection, I was able to immerse myself in Vincent Van Gogh's world for a brief but wonderful time. 

The sound and light show let us discover the life of Van Gogh in a new way: his time at the convent and in Arles, the secrets from the letters he wrote to his brother and much more. Van Gogh was too poor to pay models, so red poppies, blue corn flowers and yellow chrysanthemums became as important to him as women. And of course, sunflowers - for which he painted 11 canvas versions - might as well have been the sun for him on many of his down days. The artist is thought to have struggled through mental disabilities and lived off money he borrowed from his brother, who supported his art career. Van Gogh sold just one painting during his lifetime for 400 francs in 1890, despite the fact his brother was actually an art dealer.

The exhibit did an excellent job of bringing the 900 paintings, and many more drawings and sketches Van Gogh created, to life. A 30 minute film ran using the white walls of the tented exhibition space as the canvas. Digital images of his work poured over the walls at unimaginable sizes. And because Van Gogh is known for having painted the same scenes over and over again, curators played with that, showing the three or more paintings Van Gogh made of the same subject one after another and in the same spot. The moving images highlighted the slight differences in the paintings, whether it be the size of a woman's nose or the chair placement in a painting of his bedroom. Many of these repetitive works include the many self portraits Van Gogh painted. At the end of the film, clouds rolled in and washed all the images away. Then the film repeated itself.

Our next stop was the must-see virtual reality tour. We strapped on Oculus goggles and were guided through a virtual, colourful depiction of Van Gogh's life, from his room, the meadows, the forest, the village and ending with Starry Night over the River Rhône. At each stop we saw a virtual reality image of a scene from his life, whether two peasants laying in hay or a bridge over a waterway. Then a virtual frame dropped down, morphing the scene into a mimic of one of his original paintings - in virtual reality of course. This part of the exhibition was probably my favourite.

After a full year of not visiting any museums or art exhibitions, "Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience" was indeed a fabulous experience!

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