“Don’t take too many selfies!”
We were told this as we began the brief visual and musical journey that was Van Gogh Alive The Experience.
The immersive digital exhibit is a 45-minute show about the short but incredibly colorful life of Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. It’s not just a blown up image of the “Starry Night” or “The Potato Eaters” projected on the walls. Rather, it’s like stepping inside the greatest artworks in history—which honestly made it hard not to take selfies at the same time.
In Van Gogh Alive, there’s a shower of petals while “Blossoming Almond Tree” sways and the Oise River flows. The images and the animation are accompanied by diverse pieces of music such as Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” concerto, Toshiko Yonekawa’s “The Cherry Blossoms,” and even the chugging of an incoming steam train. (The music was so incredible that someone even made a Spotify playlist for this.)
“There’s synchrony, some kind of choreography in the images,” said Maria Isabel Garcia of Bonifacio Art Foundation Inc. (Bafi), the company who brought the international traveling exhibit to One Bonifacio High Street in Taguig.
It’s impossible not to take photos when the walls are splashed with “Sunflowers.” Heck, it’s probably the reason why a lot of people bought tickets in the first place. But there’s a bigger picture to Van Gogh Alive, and visitors could miss this if they spend the whole time taking selfies.
“The story is his life through his art, the stages of his life to the stages of his art. You really get to know him and you’ll see his mental state changing through his art,” said Garcia.
Visitors will witness the brightening of Van Gogh’s color palettes—from earth tones to honey yellows. The letters to his dear brother Theo, which provides valuable insight into the troubled genius, are also projected.
“The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting,” said the Dutch master who, in the last 10 years of his life, painted over 2,000 pictures.
By the end of the show, visitors would not only learn the Dutch master’s first name, but also his fascination with Japanese woodblock painting, the events that led to the ear-cutting incident and his incredible ability to paint beauty despite his despair.
Van Gogh Alive started in L’Atelier des Lumieres, an old foundry in Paris. The blockbuster show projects the color creations of Van Gogh from high ceilings to the floors. (Imagine walking in a digital field of irises.)
While the original digital exhibit is still running in Paris, Van Gogh Alive is currently on an international tour. Garcia said Bafi was “lucky” to get this “little window”—six weeks to be exact—and bring the experience to the Philippines. The show is now sold out, and Garcia stressed that it will not be extended.
“Why bring it to the Philippines?” we asked Garcia.
She answered: “Why not? Really, why not? When things like Van Gogh Alive go to Paris or New York, people don’t ask ‘Why is it here?’ But when we experience something really extraordinary, it’s as if we don’t deserve it. We ask ‘why is it here?’
“I think we should get used to being able to work so that we get what we deserve and I think Filipinos deserve the best,” said the Bafi curator who was also behind the Da Vinci exhibit which was held in the country a few years back.
The space on the fourth floor of One Bonifacio High Street is much smaller compared to the old foundry in Paris. The images are projected on the walls but not on the floor.
“It’s like being in a maze except that it’s Van Gogh’s works that meet you wherever you go,” said Garcia.
There are seven show times in a day, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The space has a maximum of 270 people capacity so it does not get too crowded. Visitors are given one-and-a-half hours, or two loops, inside the space. This means that visitors have enough time to learn Van Gogh’s story and take pictures for the ’Gram.
Food and drinks are not allowed inside.
For Garcia, the exhibit is like “Van Gogh meets digital prowess,” and the result is an immersive art experience like no other. “The paintings get in your head,” she added.
Van Gogh Alive is a different experience compared to visiting a museum to see a Van Gogh painting, said Garcia. But whether the visitor is in Amsterdam or in Bonifacio Global City, she stressed: “It’s the same genius.”
“He’s not trying to be relevant now in the age of selfies and millennials. He’s not. It’s the same genius, up close but bathe in contemporary treatment so that you get to know him in your own tools,” she said.