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Van Gogh: Go or no?
Russell Leadbetter’s verdict on the immersive Edinburgh art show
WHEREVER you live, it seems, you’re never too far away from an immersive exhibition of the works of Vincent Van Gogh. In Edinburgh at the moment there’s Van Gogh Alive, “the most visited multi-sensory experience in the world”.
It’s one of a clutch of high-profile touring exhibitions that depict Vincent’s singular life and career, and show his sunflowers and starry nights in hyper-real, immersive detail.
Among them are Imagine Van Gogh: The Immersive Exhibition and Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience. Collectively, they even have their own Wikipedia page.
They have such broadly similar names that it has caused a degree of confusion; the New York Times reported last year that some ticket buyers in the States complained on social media that they bought advance tickets to the wrong events because the names were so similar.
Immersive shows are becoming increasingly popular as artists and exhibition organisers harness the latest advances in digital technology.
London’s Serpentine Gallery has just opened Dominique GonzalezFoerster’s daring new solo show, Alienarium 5, a “speculative environment that invites us to imagine possible encounters with extraterrestrials”.
It includes a multi-user VR piece which “contemplates alternative forms of connection through extraterrestrial embodiment”; and an immersive 360-degree collage uses outer space “as a framework to bring humans, non-humans and extraterrestrials together”.
The bestselling pop group Abba, meanwhile, launches its eagerlyawaited Abba Voyage show on May 27, with motion-capture technology bringing the quartet to life while blurring the lines between the physical and the digital.
The Guardian recently ran a thought-provoking article on the rise of such shows. The headline: “Immersive exhibitions: the future of art or overpriced theme parks?” It’s a good question.
The Van Gogh shows have even bled into popular culture: in the Netflix hit, Emily in Paris, Emily, played by Lily Collins, visits an immersive Van Gogh show in the French capital.
In real life, Collins later took in the same exhibition, when it visited Chicago. “The immersive art installation takes a deep dive inside the mind and works of Van Gogh and brings them to life in a whole new way”, the actress wrote on Instagram. “It was the most incredible way to connect to the iconic paintings!”
THE Edinburgh event, which has been devised by Grande Experiences, of Melbourne, Australia, takes place in a purpose-built pavilion in Festival Square, across from the Usher Hall in Lothian Road.
It has already been seen by more than 8.5 million visitors worldwide, in cities ranging from Beijing and Berlin to London, Madrid, Moscow, Rome and Sydney. Tickets are £23, with concessions for older folk and kids.
In his programme notes, Grande Experiences managing director Bruce Peterson says it took 18 months “and countless iterations over the last decade to create ... Van Gogh Alive has redefined the way many people around the world engage with art and culture and it has brought tremendous pleasure to audiences young and old”.
The show is powered by Grande Experiences’ SENSORY4 system, which combines multichannel motion graphics, “cinema-quality” sound and nearly 40 high-definition projectors.
Richly detailed photographs of Van Gogh’s paintings are projected onto huge multiple screens, in their entirety or in detail, as the visitor is taken through the artist’s career, from the Netherlands (1880-1885) to Paris (February 1886-February 1888), Arles (February 1888-May 1889), SaintRemy (May 1889-May 1890) and, finally, Auvers-sur-Oise, where his life ended in July 1890.
The photographs, augmented by quotations from Vincent’s letters and by imagery that flickers across screens on the floor, are soundtracked by a classical score that includes Satie’s Gymnopédie No.1, Bach’s Cello Suite No.1, and Handel’s Sarabande.
The projections work well, and are especially bewitching when such vividly expressive paintings as Cafe Terrace at Night (Arles, 1888) and Starry Night Over the Rhone (Arles, 1888) are seen in close-up detail on 360-degree screens around you.
The show also includes a small sideroom with an abundance of mirrors and artificial sunflowers (others of which can be purchased in the giftshop, alongside T-shirts, jigsaw puzzles, books, prints, posters and
pencils); there’s even, in the foyer, a recreation of Van Gogh’s bedroom in Arles, where you can have your photograph taken.
It is a stimulating way of spending 30 or 40 minutes. It’s not quite the same as seeing the brush-strokes on Van Gogh’s actual paintings, but it is a useful introduction to, and reminder of, his genius.
Critical opinion has been divided. One critic, in a piece headlined ‘Van Gogh for the TikTok generation lacks substance’, described the show’s attitude to the paintings as deadening and conspicuously commercial.
You’re never going to please everyone. There’s no denying the exhibition’s commercial intent, but from talking to other people who were there, and from reading reactions online, it seems that the show has enough merit to make it worth seeing if you’ve a hankering to explore Van Gogh’s peerless work.
A couple of visitors, impressed by what they saw, urged the organisers, via Facebook, to consider running similar shows on Francis Bacon or Claude Monet. Grande Experiences have already, it turns out, done one on Monet and Friends. But Francis Bacon? Now there’s a thought.
It’s not quite the same as seeing the brush-strokes on Van Gogh’s paintings but it’s a good introduction or reminder of his genius