The Van Gogh Immersive Experience

A Fabulous Day Out In Bristol

The Van Gogh Immersive Experience is currently on at The Propyard – an old warehouse in Bristol – an amazing space for a truly amazing experience. This was my 2nd immersive experience – the first being “Seeing the Unseen” – a step into Gossaert’s ‘Adoration’, a National Gallery production at Winchester Cathedral. The two couldn’t have been more different – location, subject, sound track etc – both absolutely magical and educational but totally different experiences with totally different responses. “Seeing the “Unseen” was an in depth exploration of one painting whereas the Van Gogh Experience almost overloaded the viewer with a huge catalogue of his work – probably not all 900 paintings painted over 10 years but we certainly saw many of them – all the very well known paintings but also a lot I hadn’t seen before. The main gallery is a two-storey high 360 degree projection of Van Gogh’s paintings with a fantastic sound track. The video below shows the start of the section on the many paintings of sunflowers that Van Gogh is so well known for.

This large gallery was ‘furnished’ with rugs, deck chairs and rugs to lie on – it was a real ‘sit back/lie back and relax’. It felt like the paintings were washing over us. The graphics transforming one painting in to another were extraordinary. At one point the gallery was covered in seascapes with the yachts gently moving in the sea and suddenly the water ‘drained’ out of the paintings on to the floor as the scenes metamorphosized in to other pictures. It was a brilliant effect. The graphic teams behind this production are extraordinarily creative and this modern phenomenon brilliantly brings to life the works of a genius – Vincent Van Gogh. There are some who may be a bit sniffy about this – but experiences like this are bringing art to the masses. The final room of the show is a colouring in room – a room of tables full of adults and children colouring in photocopies of some of the great works – a wonderful sight to see.

This show is on tour – if it or anything like it comes anywhere near you, I would highly recommend it.