A reclusive and contemplative man, the painter Vincent Van Gogh would undoubtedly be amazed to visit the immersive exhibition created around his work and presented by Oasis immersion, at the Palais des Congrès de Montréal, and to see his paintings dance and move around the spectators. And yet, it is true that he seems to have initiated this movement with the touches of paint that made the sun or the stars swirl in his works.
Van Gogh — Distortion, is the title of the exhibition, created by Montreal creative studio Normal Studio and Canadian producer Paquin Entertainment Group. “Distortion”, because we plunged into the pictorial work of Van Gogh, but also into his correspondence, to make it burst, twist it, project it on all the walls and on the floor. But also because, already in the last centuries, Van Gogh’s art was qualified as a distortion of reality.
Interactive experience
It’s not the first experience of its kind. From 2019, the Arsenal contemporary art gallery presented Imagine Van Gogh, an immersive experience induced by projections on the walls. But Van Gogh — Distortion go further.
Oasis immersion has three large rooms, where three different themes are explored. The first, all in black and white, further explores Van Gogh’s correspondence with his brother Theo, the drawings and sketches of the ocean and boats. “We get into Van Gogh’s head,” says Mathieu St-Arnaud, creative director at Normal Studio.
The second is inspired by the painter’s brushstrokes and his mastery of color to invade the walls with free creations, which soon also form the flamboyant suns of the Dutch painter. “We wonder: what would Van Gogh possibly have done with the technologies we have today? explains Mr. St-Arnaud. Let’s bet that the artist, taken with giddiness to see his works thus animated, would perhaps be bored here with the calm of his fields of blond wheat.
The third room is devoted to interactive animations. This room first presents galleries of paintings by Van Gogh, one offering an assemblage of various portraits of the artist, where people blink from time to time at the viewer. Then, paintings of flowers appear, which technology makes move, also allowing the public to create their own color movements by moving in space.
It is also in this room that the canvas is projected Starry night over the Rhônewhich members of the Normal creative studio associated with the Miles Davis piece Drad Dog. The interactive installations allow the viewer to walk through the gallery with the impression of having their feet in the Rhône.
And painting in all this?
Immersive exhibitions inspired by the works of great painters are in fashion. And Van Gogh, according to Denys Lavigne, co-founder, president and chief creative officer of Oasis Immersion, “is the standard bearer”.
Of course, there are no actual paintings on the walls of Oasis Immersion, and we sometimes miss the physical size of a canvas, the thickness of the brushstrokes that the master has placed there. . Also, Mathieu St-Arnaud hopes that Van Gogh — Distortion can inspire those who have never done so to go see the painter’s works in a museum, if possible. “For those who know him, it’s also an opportunity to rediscover him from another perspective, from another angle,” he says.