About a month ago I saw a sponsored post on Facebook that Beyond Van Gogh would be here in Costa Rica, and I immediately made plans to attend. I was delighted for several reasons. First of all, since moving to Costa Rica at the beginning of 2020 I had not been to a cultural event here, in large part due to COVID. Now things were opening up. I also have always been a fan of Van Gogh and the period in which he painted. And third, I had seen some favorable posts of friends of mine in the US who had gone to the exhibit. Here it was in Costa Rica, and I definitely wanted to go. It was scheduled to be held in a large convention center that was about 45 minutes away so it was definitely doable. Tickets were already selling and some weekend dates were already sold out. I made arrangements to go during a weekday with two friends.
Tickets were spaced 15 minutes apart and we got there a little early and had fun taking some pictures outside.
Soon it was time for us to enter, and I loved the experience from the moment we officially entered. Slowly we walked through a path filled with quotes exchanged between Van Gogh and his brother Theo, giving us information about Van Gogh’s life. We zigzagged along the quotes separated by empty picture frames and it definitely was setting a mood.
I knew some things about Van Gogh’s life from reading Irving Stone’s book Lust for Life, published in 1934 and based on the letters between the two brothers. And I also was aware of how many people have been fascinated with Van Gogh’s life. The movie Lust for Life starring Kirk Douglas, based on Stone’s book, was released in 1957. It won Douglas a Golden Globe for Best Actor as well as an Oscar nomination for his role as Van Gogh. Anthony Quinn, who played his friend Paul Gauguin, received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. That is not the only movie about Van Gogh. In a blog posted by Molli in Discover Walks Blog, she shares four other worthwhile films about Van Gogh: Vincent and Theo (1990); The Eyes of Vincent (2005) about his time in a mental asylum; Loving Vincent (2017), an Oscar nominated film which features a lot of animation and raised the idea that his death was an accident and not suicide; and At Eternity’s Gate (2018) which looks at the final years of his life. Here’s the link where you can learn more and see some trailers of the films.
https://www.discoverwalks.com/blog/paris/the-5-best-movies-about-vincent-van-gogh/
Clearly Vincent Van Gogh’s life and work have fascinated and served as inspiration for many other people in their artistic expression, including the creators of Beyond Van Gogh.
Now back to our experience at the exhibit. Following the space filled with quotes, we wandered into a dark space with a bit of animation and two black boxes which turned out to be the entrance into the main room. It was a bit disorienting until we realized the black boxes were actually the entrance. We must have stood there for several minutes with quite a few other people until someone walked through the boxes and then of course we all followed and were treated to a very spacious room filled with animation on the walls, floors and panels that were placed in central areas. Animation inspired by Starry Night paintings filled the space and then shifted into a number of Van Gogh’s self-portraits. For the next 35 minutes we were dazzled with over 300 hundred of his paintings appropriately grouped. As a choreographer I was fascinated by the movement and energy that was created, as well as the unique way one set of images transitioned into another. Sometimes the walls faded and new images appeared… other times it was like a large wave swept through the room.
Some people sat on the floor, others stood in place or wandered around, and some of us were able to sit on the few benches or beanbag-like chairs. I was pleased to see how many young people attended. Lots of Ticos in their twenties, thirties and forties. We found two beanbag chairs to sit on and our third person sat on the floor. We stayed there totally fascinated and in wonderment at the way Van Gogh’s images were being presented until the program began to repeat. Then as we stood and began walking we realized that the experience was a bit different in each place and so we stayed for nearly the full next set moving about the large room!
It was indeed an immersion into a world creatively inspired by Van Gogh’s painting and as the title suggested,beyond just the images. It was very different than going to an exhibition of his actual paintings in a museum, which itself is an outstanding experience. For me it was a different kind of creative adventure inspired by his work — animation (inspired by an artist) with its unique timing, spacing and invitation to step into a new dimension. I knew that as soon as I got home I wanted to learn about the people who created it!
A quick Google search led me to all the information I wanted to know. Beyond Van Gogh was created by Mathieu St-Arnaud and his team at the Normal Studio. St-Arnaud and a partner founded Normal Studio in 2009, and a trip to the website provided lots more information. The home page describes their mission to “transform urban spaces into full-on immersive experiences…. 360 projection and architectural mapping, we spark wonder into people’s everyday lives.” They are a multi-disciplinary team of 30 professionals combining creativity and tech.
They describe their aim in creating Beyond Van Gogh:
Expanding Vincent’s universe to a sharable and lively 360 projection environment requires a different way of thinking, like Vincent himself. While certain paintings are presented in all their simplicity, others have been enhanced, expanded, enlarged and juxtaposed in order to fill the space with life, texture and colour. (https://normal.studio/en/)
Other projects include: another artist-inspired project – Beyond Monet; a corporate creation for a Toyota Dealer Meeting; the set for La Traviata for the Icelandic Opera; and a stage production of Diary of Anne Frank created by Lorraine Pintal for a theatre in Montreal.
Of course it is still very meaningful for me to have the “classic” experience of seeing the original paintings in the museum setting, but I also adore and am inspired by the blending of the classical with the latest technology. Thank you, Normal Studio, for creating a wonderful experience, and I joyfully celebrate being able to see it here in Costa Rica with two delightful friends!!
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