As people exited the massive Original Immersive Van Gogh Exhibition currently on view at Pier 36 in New York City, they formed a line to take a picture of one of his most famous quotes: What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?
Indeed, the artist who started painting at 27 years of age, who had created more than 2000 works of art before taking his own life just 10 years later, did have a point about courage: It takes a lot of guts to put oneself out there and even more so for those with a sensitive disposition. Knowing how painful it could be, he decided to do it anyway.
The work of Vincent van Gogh seems to attract people from all walks of life; there is something for everyone in his impressive catalogue. But the artist had always intended for his work to be appreciated by the common folk. Perhaps that’s why he painted flowers and corn fields, cafes and people sitting around the kitchen table.
At the exhibition, too, people were sitting around, watching his art projected onto their surroundings and even themselves, immersed in his world, watching it through his lens. Had he been alive now, he may have been quite astounded at the diversity of his audience, and at how eager the people are to see life from his perspective — at different points in his artistic career.
Being in a space full of moving art has a profoundly moving effect. You don’t necessarily register the fact that you are in a 75,000 square foot space with 500,000 cubic feet of projections, watching 60,6000 frames of video featuring 90,000,000 pixels. What you register is the emotion. And for an exhibition about an artist that was put together by other artists, that’s the goal.
The immersive exhibition was created by Massimiliano Siccardi, a world-renowned master of digital art with over 20 years of experience. While working on the project, he was also guided by a quote from the artist: I see the world in all its violent beauty… as no one sees it but me. To him, the exhibition welcomes the new and the beautiful, along with the crazy and the violent.
To do that, he worked with David Korins, an award-winning designer with a passion for art and storytelling. As the exhibition’s Creative Director he took Siccardi’s artistic interpretation of van Gogh’s work and filtered the entire thing through his own artistic sensibility, like creating original sculptures that complement the digital components and supervising multiple pop-up elements.
But the exhibition does not only contain projections and installations, it’s also an auditory experience created under the guidance of composer and pianist Luca Longobardi. Relying on the music of Edith Piaf, Handel and Thom Yorke, and more, the classically trained musician selected pieces that are both profoundly touching and refreshingly unexpected.
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together,” once stated Vincent van Gogh. Thinking about the immersive exhibition curated in his honor that is being hosted by 20 cities across the country, it’s hard to argue with the factuality of this statement. Art begets art, I suppose, but it takes courage to bring your dreams and visions to life.
Note: Aside from the image taken by the author, all other images are the creative property of Carol Fox and Associates Public Relations, used with permission.