It is a lovely morning and since it is early on a weekday, there are just a handful of people milling about the mall and almost all of them are making their way to the Van Gogh 360o Live Experience. The makeshift box office and posters, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, make it seem like a day at the movies, but nothing could be further than the truth.
The first room or hall, if you would like to call it that, has a few reproductions of Van Gogh’s famous works — selfie spots so all the click-crazy people can get it out of their system while they wait for the previous batch of visitors to leave. And much like any self-respecting theatre lounge, it has a vending machine
The next enclosure has internally-lit standees that take you through the artist’s life; some of Van Gogh’s most popular paintings form the backdrop for this text. There is something to be said for viewing a work of art that is lit up from within. The incandescence combined with the enlarged size, gives you a closer view of the brushstrokes, the blend of colours and Van Gogh’s attention to detail, an appreciation that could be lost if you were viewing the same works in their actual size.
Hats off to the writer or team who put together the content — it piques your interest and sustains it without sounding like an art history textbook. It also jostles you into a place of empathy for the artist, which makes what follows even more spectacular, because the next room is where the magic unfolds.
It is dark and a lightbulb is flickering, a wisp of smoke flits across the light. Gradually, the room brightens and I see tired, expectant faces looking at me. But they are not looking at me — they are seated around a table, waiting to start their dinner after a long day in the fields. I had walked in on The Potato Eaters.
The Van Gogh 360 Live Experience | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement / RS Kirat
They carry on with their well-deserved meal, oblivious to all of us. But, there is no time to stand and stare. I find a spot on the floor and let the colours wash over me as one painting morphs into the next. Trees in the garden give way to fields ripe with harvest, Irises bloom, grow and fade away, labourers snooze under the midday sun as crows take flight across wheatfields and sunflowers whirl by in bursts of colour as you bask in a mantle of yellow.
All the while, there is an unobtrusive melody playing in the background. Snatches of familiar tunes blend in with the sensory delight my eyes rove on. Almond Blossoms drift past on a soft gentle breeze and as silly as it sounds, I stretch my hand out to catch one of those little white petals dancing by. It is hard to imagine the same sensations in the absence of music; the choice of classical pieces from Van Gogh’s era or thereabouts, only add to the immersive, surround sound andsight experience of wandering in time.
As the walls of the Bedroom in Arles give way to bright blue skies, I wonder if I am walking in Van Gogh’s mind, if that is how he saw the world unimpeded by barriers, fences or boundaries. Perhaps my only regret, if I dare imagine one, was that the Cafe Terrace at Night was displayed for a fraction shorter than some of his other works. It is a personal favourite and for an all-too brief moment I was there on that sidewalk, heading towards my table lit by the soft glow of lamps.
The Van Gogh 360 Live Experience | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement / RS Kirat
With the Van Gogh 360o experience, you are no longer on the outside, looking in. You are in — in that glorious riot of blue, yellow and green, in the pathos of the artist’s manic efforts to capture on canvas what his eye had seen, in his heightened sense of helplessness as he battled a mental illness which he knew was hindering his creativity.
To truly soak in the marvel that it is, I would suggest viewing the exhibition by yourself or with a special someone, or at the very least with someone sensible enough to understand they are in an art gallery, albeit an unconventional one.
Of course, there will always be the heavy-footed plods trying to take photos of themselves at The Yellow House or stepping on to the Terrace in the Luxembourg Gardens. It is to no avail since it is akin to taking pictures in a movie theatre. Word to the wise: you are standing in the path of high-beam projectors, and every unflattering bulge that you think is hidden under your clothes goes on display for amused (or irate) onlookers. Yes, they should be admiring Van Gogh, but if people who should have known better get in their way, you cannot blame them for taking in the free eyeful, too.
The Van Gogh 360 Live Experience | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement / RS Kirat
If you do not know what to expect from the Van Gogh 3600, you are in for a treat because nothing prepares you to have your mind blown. And even if you have been subject to the various photos, reels, features and first-person accounts that abound online (this one included), nothing comes close to encountering it yourself.
While one could argue that the animation could have been crisper or the imagery sharper, and I have no doubt the more technically qualified could pinpoint the lack more articulately, it cannot take away from the experience of living in those immortal works of art, fleeting though it might be.
Van Gogh 360o Live is on at Bharatiya City Mall in Bengaluru till September 3. Tickets on Bookmyshow. For exhibition dates in other cities, log on to https://vangogh360.in/
Van Gogh 360 in Bangalore. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement / RS Kirat
