Written by Sara Debevec
Photographs by JL Cederblom
Immersive Van Gogh feels like stepping into Van Gogh’s dream. A perfectly synchronized multi-dimensional performance of his mind. It’s part exhibit because it showcases images of Van Gogh’s paintings and part animated film because Van Gogh’s works are deconstructed and mixed into a powerful story. A story told through large-scale moving images that are projected onto walls, ceilings, and floors. You’re walking through the art to an original mesmerizing soundtrack that moves you and invites you to explore.
Lighthouse Immersive and Impact Museums have teamed up to bring this unique vision of Van Gogh’s life to major cities like Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, and New York with additional openings scheduled for 16 cities across North America including Phoenix, Dallas, Denver and Las Vegas.
The highly anticipated Los Angeles presentation of Immersive Van Gogh officially opened in August this year at Lighthouse Artspace Los Angeles, a 55,000 square-foot facility which formerly served as the iconic Amoeba Music Building. It is the newest staging of the blockbuster exhibit which sold more than 2.1 million tickets since its North American premiere in July 2020.
More than 2.1 million tickets have been sold to Immersive Van Gogh, making it the most popular attraction currently in North America. So what makes this exhibit more unique than anything else we have seen before?
"What I saw when I got to Paris, just blew my mind. It was this kind of new genre…"
Designed by Creator and Italian film producer Massimiliano Siccardi and featuring music by Italian multimedia composer Luca Longobardi, the production harnesses 119,000 frames of captivating video totaling 148,000,000 pixels and 500,000+ cubic feet of projections, bringing the painter's masterpieces to life. Each installation is unique to the building that hosts it and holds around 100 projectors.
Siccardi, tried to create what he thought might have flashed before Van Gogh’s eyes in the moments before his death. The artist, who has been pioneering immersive exhibitions in Europe for 30 years now, has truly created an out of body experience for us through his work. So how exactly did this European- American collaboration come about?
Corey Ross, Co-Founder and Producer of Immersive Van Gogh, has been working in theater for about 20 years. “Four years ago, I started to see that, commercial producers like myself, were doing interesting projects in Europe with art exhibits,” he says. Ross’s interest in projection art brought him to Paris where he came across the work of Massimiliano Siccardi who has created a number of immersive shows inspired by famous painters like Monet, Chagall, Klimt, Picasso, Bosch and Bruegel.
“What I saw when I got to Paris, just blew my mind. It was this kind of new genre that was combining art exhibiting, animation, and loose narrative. It had this incredible theatrical and experiential thing to it. It reminded me of the show in New York called Sleep No More in the sense that the public moves through the art and you kind of choose your own adventure” adds Ross. There is something truly magical about being able to be part of a painting and experience it through a projection. This is a body of work that moves you with intention.
Designer David Korins known for his work in “Hamilton” joined forces with Italian Creative Team to Produce the awe – Inspiring Los Angeles Exhibit. He developed unique immersive elements such as intricate mirror sculptures inside the exhibition space that reflect Van Gogh’s work throughout the duration of the show. He also created a beautiful sunflower bar for refreshments and a sculpture inspired by Van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo. With the help of AI technology, the installation lets us write letters to Van Gogh and receive letters back from him. The elements created by Korins, complete the experience, and pull you further into Van Gogh’s highly creative and turbulent world.
C0-founders Diana and Mark Shedletsky
“Massimiliano creates these shows almost like a DJ who takes a bit from each song, puts a beat between them and turns them into a new piece of music. Massimiliano and David Korins are refracting and reflecting the world of Van Gogh, his art and essence as a person,” adds Corey Ross.
He stresses that music has been an important element of the Los Angeles show, especially at a place like Amoeba. “Longobardi and Massimiliano have been collaborators since 2012. It’s important to create the music that will propel the narrative and the story forward and add emotion to the experience […] And we go through the show and see people weeping and other people dancing, and people certainly have these innate emotional reactions to what's going on in the show,” explains Ross.
Van Gogh remains one of the central figures in Western Art. From iconic sunflowers to romantic starry nights, his work is deeply rooted in our culture. We all know Van Gogh as a troubled artist, who cut his own ear off, ended up in a mental asylum and later committed suicide. But so much beautiful and touching work emerged through this friction that he experienced with his own art. Wondering through the three large rooms of former Amoeba Records and soaking up the work of Van Gogh in this new and original way, gave me serious goosebumps.
There has been an incredible array of interesting celebrity artists come through Immersive Van Gogh. From Madonna and Eddie Lennox to Michelle Pfeiffer and George Lucas, many artists are intrigued and excited by this new concept. “I'm sure that a number of amazing projects and opportunities will come after Van Gogh,” says Ross. He believes that there's going to be an incredible convergence between live, immersive, and projection art worlds in the next few years and they’re striving to be at the forefront of it. -
