Van Gogh Immersive Experience: To Gogh or Not?

Last night I attended Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience at Landsdowne’s Aberdeen Pavilion in Ottawa. I’m a simple gal, shower me in light and bright coloured paintings and I’ll be entertained. Gabe, my boyfriend, looked at me mid-way through the show and said “there’s NO way you can critique this on your new blog. This is awesome. I think this is the best art exhibit I’ve been to. Ever.”

It did feel pretty amazing sitting on the floor surrounded by a thoughtfully curated wall-to-floor projection. A similar feeling to walking through an aquarium. I loved the way the paintings transitioned into one another, focused in on the brush strokes and showed you paintings that were thematically connected. I got excited when portraits were projected and caught a couple of them blinking. 

When you arrive at the pavilion, one dude scans your ticket and another person lets you know to use the washroom now as it’s your last chance. When you enter, you’re greeted by a path of lightboxes with text that provides insight into Van Gogh’s life. They’re basically blown-up PowerPoint slides with a pretty huge text that’s a little fuzzy to read, but the content (which is oddly not totally chronological) provides insight into Van Gogh’s struggle for self-discovery, mental health, relationships and evolution as an artist. When you enter the large room for the show, I saw clear connections between the information shared before and the paintings emphasized in the large projections. They could’ve had a couple more (and cuter) chairs in the space, but we didn’t mind sitting back to back on the floor. 

The show itself was the most magical part. The paintings moved across the floor and seamlessly transitioned into one another. The music was carefully selected to match each theme of the paintings displayed. The show bounced from immersing you in colourful paintings of a city or countryside to moody, dark evenings with sparkling stars, to floral arrangements that break off into a flowery explosive collage. I think you could watch the show four times over and still notice new pieces, different brush strokes, or careful details. This particular exhibition was conceived by Creative Director Mathieu St-Arnaud who did a magical job animating the thoughtful display. My favourite parts were when the blossoms started flying, seeing the portraits come to life and the swirling build-up to the iconic Starry Night projection. I also really loved the pathway between the PowerPoint slides into the larger room where projections melted over the    doorway. 

I’m someone who loves hands-on, interactive experiences and being active. The show lacks any reactivity or interaction and takes place in one large room. Despite how beautiful it was to watch, it is a long time to stand, wandering (45 minutes) or sitting on a cold floor, especially if your body isn’t used to sitting or standing for long periods of time.

Also, I’m not sure who decided the prices for these tickets but they must be laughing sitting on top of a pile of money. $52 per person is a large fee to ask for an art exhibit that should have relatively low costs. It begs the question, is the experience actually worth that steep ticket price? I’m sure the projectors don’t come cheap, but Panasonic has a blog post all about how they tackled the project in Toronto and claim that the laser projection they used has a minimal maintenance time and is much cheaper than traditional lamp-based projection projects. Ripley’s Aquarium tickets are around $40 and they have to keep like a billion fish alive. Moment Factory’s Aura projection show in the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal cost $34. Tickets to the Van Gogh Museum that contains the largest collection of Van Gogh’s actual, real-life paintings in the Netherlands charges $28.27!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course, I’m just speculating how much things could cost and I don’t mean to sound cheap for a wonderful night that required a talented team to create. But I do think that experiences like this should be made accessible to as many when possible and this is a fee that would turn many people away. 

Now if I had been in charge… (Evil laugh) 

First, I am wondering if there is some way to project onto the ceiling as well. While the floor to wall projection was great, it could have been taken to the next level by placing you within an entire projection. 

Second, I often felt like we were sitting within a crowd of people. Had the large room had slightly wider pillars, or sections to wander through, it might have facilitated a more intimate experience. 

Third, I would have offered specific tours for free coordinated with either retirement homes, school groups or other community organizations who could connect people to the experience who otherwise might not have access. 

My final change would be to include chairs that are super comfy, recline backwards AND have wheels so you can turn to see the room as the exhibit changes. That last idea might be a little distracting, but I would’ve LOVED to sit in a rolling chair last night or one that at least rotated so I could stop twisting my neck back and forth.

Okay wait, I have one last idea, everyone knows Vincent Van Gogh and this was a great way to reimagine his paintings. The model has proven to be successful and moving forward could be a great way to get people to experience art by other people, namely artists who haven’t had the same notoriety as Van Gogh and deserve a little light shined on their names. 

All in all, it was a captivating night and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves art, Van Gogh, or has a really generous partner who’s willing to splurge for you both on the tickets for date night. This would also be so fun to experience as a child as it offers an unconventional way to view art that’s different from typical galleries. I don’t doubt that we will be experiencing art like this in the future. I just hope the ticket prices become a little more reasonable, or at least they put the money towards some comfier seating.