Get your ticket and Gogh: New immersive exhibition of legendary artist's work shines
In an 1874 correspondence to his brother, Vincent Van Gogh wrote, "...find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful."
It is my belief that Van Gogh and just about anyone else would find much beauty to behold in Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience.
Imaginative and deeply entrancing, Beyond Van Gogh offers its audience something out of a dream. From the very beginning you are transported to another dimension and placed inside the works and perhaps the very mind of Vincent Van Gogh.
What begins as a sort of visual history behind the artist, featuring written words about his artistic journey and selected quotes from letters he wrote, culminates in a completely immersive experience as his artwork comes to life around you and even under your feet.
Beyond Van Gogh
Sébastien Grernier-Cartier, CEO and partner at Montreal-based Normal Studio says the first and most important challenge was to make sure that in creating the experience, the depth of meaning behind the artists brushstrokes didn't get lost in the technology.
"The objective is to use the technology, but to make it disappear,"Grernier-Cartier said. "So that when you dive into it, you don't feel that you're looking at an image, but rather you're in it, like an environment."
Dozens of projectors set up in a grid beam the high resolution scans of Van Gogh's work around the exhibit. Every surface, including the floor seems to breathe, Van Gogh's most famous works fill your vision and an ambient soundtrack plays and moves over the digital scenery.
Grernier-Cartier says they wanted to make an experience that was inclusive of everyone, "Beyond Van Gogh is for families," he said. "Kids love it. You know, they lived in the age where they see images everywhere. So for them, it's like just a natural thing to follow like images on the floor."
In each of the scenes presented, Van Gogh's works seem to come to life, elements move and sway with the soft music overhead. Digital artists worked to isolate and manipulate textures and colours and even whole elements from the artist's work.
"There is a scene where you're looking at different paintings of Van Gogh that he did of himself, and then we've extended them onto the floor a little bit, so it feels like the room is infinite," he said.
Beyond Van Gogh
The organizers want to make sure people feel safe when they come and visit Beyond Van Gogh. The space has hand washing stations and there is plenty of room to roam around so social distancing space is available.
Tickets are currently available on the website (https://calgaryvangogh.com) every Thursday morning, there are special tickets to attend a yoga class right in the middle of the immersive space.
The exhibit opens Friday July 30 and runs until August 30.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
Fewer medical students going into family medicine contributing to doctor shortage
As some family doctors are retiring and others are moving away from family medicine, there are fewer medical students to take their place.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Competition bureau finds 'substantial' anti-competitive effects with proposed Bunge-Viterra merger
The proposed merger of agricultural giants Viterra and Bunge is raising competition concerns from the federal government.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
BREAKING Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
College students, inmates and a nun: A unique book club meets at one of America's largest jails
An unconventional book club inside one of America's largest jails brings college students and inmates together to tackle books that resonate with the mostly Black and Latino group members.