In 2021, the creators of a new Vincent Van Gogh immersive experience captured a post-pandemic zeitgeist at Pullman Yards in Kirkwood just as people were feeling comfortable in communal settings again.
Over eight months, more than 425,000 attended the experience, far more than Atlanta-based executive producer John Zaller and his team expected. Almost immediately, they began designing an upgraded version.
The 2.0 version, which is also showing in Singapore, launched July 21 at the Exhibition Hub Atlanta Art Center in Doraville on Buford Highway right outside I-85, a permanent art space Zaller opened last year.
“We said we’d bring it back bigger and better and that’s what we’ve done,” Zaller said while giving The Atlanta Journal-Constitution a tour of the experience. “Van Gogh is an evergreen subject and hugely popular artist. People do come back.”
More than 400 of Van Gogh’s paintings are featured throughout the multi-room exhibit and all the music is original, created by a Brussels-based composer Thomas Sohet. People typically spend 60 to 75 minutes at the experience, Zaller said.
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
The opening room: Near the entrance, attendees will see an oversized 3D rendition of Van Gogh’s face with his various paintings overlaid on top of him. And to honor his best works, Zaller replicated many of them at the same size as the originals. “This is the humble canvas where he was able to create amazing scale that could be blown up to a large size,” Zaller said.
There’s a short video about Van Gogh’s inability to see the full spectrum of color and a section devoted to his 11 sunflower paintings, which includes a seven-minute video of different flower paintings over the same vase. “He couldn’t afford models or travel,” Zaller said. “So he used the same vase. It’s very contemplative and meditative.”
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
The first immersive room: Zaller said they wanted to really home in on Van Gogh’s interest in Japanese art and how it influenced his later works. The mini-immersive room provides a multi-sensory eight-minute review of Japanese art’s impact on Van Gogh’s style. He said Van Gogh learned from Japanese painters adept at layering and creating dimension. “In ‘Starry Night,’ he uses these sharp short cuts that create flowing movement,” he noted.
Credit: RODNEY HO/h
Credit: RODNEY HO/h
The third room: This room features a replica of Van Gogh’s bedroom in Arles, France, similar to one that was in the first immersive exhibit. People can lie on the bed or sit in the chairs for photos. “You can literally step into the painting,” Zaller said. “It’s a fan favorite so we brought it back.” There is also Van Gogh’s view from the asylum he entered late in life. “That was his most productive period ironically,” Zaller noted.
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
The main immersive room: The space is significantly larger than the one used at Pullman Yards. As a result, the paintings are given far greater space to breath over a 35-minute sequence. They use quotes from Van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo to illuminate his personal thoughts about art and his surroundings. “We portray his paintings in his bedroom,” he said. “You see all his works around him. We take him into his personal space. We have a 15-minute section that is complete immersion inside his paintings.”
He said they worked on improving the visuals from the first one. “The colors are richer and more saturated, more like his original paintings,” Zaller said.
There are poofs and beanbags as well as wooden lawn chairs and benches for people to sit. “We like to mix it up with the seating because it’s an active experience,” he said.
The VR experience: For an additional $5, you can view an eight-minute virtual reality walk through many of Van Gogh’s beloved paintings such as the wheat fields and the night sky in Saint-Rémy, France, as well as his bedroom in Arles.
“It was beautiful, very inspiring,” said Katie Graham, a 52-year-old Johns Creek stay-at-home mom who brought her 15-year-old son Nate to the experience. “It takes you right into the paintings. You feel his struggles.”
“All the movement brought the paintings to life,” Nate said. “You feel like you’re there.”
Graham said she had gone to the Pullman Yards Van Gogh experience two years earlier and had no idea this was different. “I liked this one better,” she said.
Maggie and Dave Thompson drove from Thomaston to check it out after hearing about a different Van Gogh experience in Jacksonville, Florida. “The visuals and sound effects were very powerful,” Dave said. “It really gave you a sense of life in the 19th century.”
IF YOU GO
“Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience”
10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; 9:30 a.m.- 9:30 p.m Saturday and holidays; 9:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday. Prices start at $34.90 for adults. Exhibition Hub Atlanta Art Center, 5660 Buford Highway NE, Doraville. feverup.com
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