Review: Stepping into Vincent van Gogh’s World

Why the immersive exhibition in Denver is worth visiting.

“I dream of painting, and then I paint my dream.” — Vincent Van Gogh

Dreaming with eyes wide open; that is the experience of the Immersive van Gogh Exhibit in Denver. 60,600 frames of video, 90,000,000 pixels and over 500,000 cubic feet of projection come together into a dramatic, dream-like storytelling of the great works throughout Vincent van Gogh’s life. 

The “world-renowned master of digital art,” Massimiliano Siccardi, is the man behind the curtain for the Immersive van Gogh exhibition with Luca Longobardi working as his musical composer. Since leaving performance dance, Siccardi has spent more than 30 years entranced in the world of video art, pioneering his way across Europe. The immediate success of Immersive van Gogh after its release in Europe sent the producers packing for North America. 

The exhibition opened its doors to Denver, Colorado on September 30, 2021 in the Lighthouse Denver building. Lighthouse plans to artistically occupy the exhibition space until at least early February of 2022. 

The large, blank space of the Lighthouse building perfectly encapsulates the conceptual art that fills the inside. Stepping in, the booming hums of classical music run to your senses. Curiosity peaking in the museum goers who wait in line for their ticket. 

Soon, an usher guides you through the almost black darkness into van Gogh’s world of color. The exhibition is composed of two rooms adorned with mirrors, so that the projected images can swirl around you from any spot in the room. From the  floor, to the ceiling, to the fabric of your clothes, nothing is off limits when it comes to the canvas. The production captivates your full attention as the show literally grows from van Gogh’s dark, Dutch period into the sunshine of his sun flowers and spirals of Starry Night. Blues swirl into star-spotted blacks, and at the sudden thunder of the orchestra, his Wheat Fields burst orange and yellows onto the screen. It is a dreamland for video artists and van Gogh fanatics alike. 

Though awe-inspiring, the idea of immersive art has been met with much adversity. Where does this new age of attending museums fit into the classical art world? 

As we navigate our way into art consumption through technological means, we must remember the originals. As art professor at Davidson College, C. Shaw Smith, explains; when we go to the museums where these paintings are actually hanging, it is a completely different experience. Seeing Van Gogh through giant screenings with added animation does not allow for the same art history understanding as seeing the true-to-size painting hanging on a wall in a museum with all the detailed brushstrokes before you. Van Gogh as a real person and artist can be minimized at the large-scale immersive exhibition. 

But that does not diminish the grandeur of such an exhibition. When we start to put a label or definition on what constitutes art, we ruin the idea of art in and of itself. Art is everyone’s own interpretation and experience. The painter paints, the singer sings, and then the crowd takes home their own meaning.

In the age of digital technology, the world of art is expanding and evolving rapidly. The pursuit of video production as a creative medium was not even plausible in the time of the beloved post-impressionist painter. And who is to say that Van Gogh would not have been enthralled by the idea of immersive art as well?

Immersive Van Gogh allows even the people most out of touch with the art world to connect with the colorful masterpieces of the famous painter. While sitting in your pocket of the room, each carefully chosen song, each animation, creates a mood that parallels every selected painting. It is an exhibition that is alive to the senses. It is bewitching at every moment. It is an opportunity to step into what one can imagine as Vincent van Gogh’s dream of painting.