artnet News: Van Gogh is getting the high-tech, 21st-century treatment, as Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum brings a new experiential attraction to London.
Titled “Meet Vincent van Gogh,” the pop-up offers up an audio tour of the artist’s life as told through his letters, illustrated along the way by three-dimensional reproductions of famous works, audiovisual scenes, large-scale projections, and interactive activities.
4 comments:
Saying that they recognize the "demand in the market for experiences" is a weird way to put it. An ordinary museum is an experience. You get to walk through and view different art pieces and so on. That's an experience that many people enjoy quite a bit. I think to say that they recognize a demand for interactive or immersive experiences may be a better way of putting that. I'm interested in seeing how this will impact their number of visitors. I feel as though there will be a new wave of visitors to the museum, possibly a younger audience. This has the potential to also bring in audiences that aren't necessarily into art but looking for something fun to do. On the other hand, there may be people who are very stern about what a museum is who may not enjoy this. They may lose some of their audiences. You know, you win some and you lose some. With that being said, this is a good idea and I'd love to see this. I just hope that it isn't the whole museum that'll be interactive. I hope that there will still be some areas that are like a traditional, walk-through museum.
I have been to Amsterdam twice, and both times I have prioritized going to the Vincent Van Gogh Museum. The museum as a whole is strategically organized, and the self-guided audio tours offer a plethora of information about Van Gogh that one would not necessarily be able to find on his Wikipedia page. The fact that they are reaching towards the realm of immersive exhibits is not at all surprising, and not just because we have all stared at “Starry Night” and wondered what it would be like to exist in that world. I say that because in their self-guided audio tours, there are already sensory elements that bring you into the world of the painting. For example, you can stand in front of “The Potato Eaters” and hear potatoes being peeled and silverware being moved around; you hear the sounds of the kitchen that you are receiving with your eyes. Van Gogh was a true wonder, and I think he should be celebrated through every facet of exhibition. These immersive exhibits are what visual is all about: leaving the viewer wanting to experience more than what is on the canvas.
I love experimental museums. I think museums hold a very important place in our communities, as educators and beautiful artistic foundations for communities to hold on to. I love the idea of taking an already well known and respected artist and displaying his work in this way. By putting the name Van Gogh on this experience, it draws in a large crowd and a crowd that may not be interested in this type of museum otherwise. We have also all seen Van Gogh’s work displayed in gold frames on white walls, but that display provides a certain disconnect between art and viewer. This presentation immerses you in Van Gogh’s work and his world and allows the audience to see this art that they have seen a million times in a brand new way. This brings the audiences so much closer to the art, and brings the art into a more digestible way for the modern viewer and allows the original messages of the piece to reach deeper into the modern audience.
When an exhibition about Vincent Van Gogh’s life and works came to Houston at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston they had an additional room (that was free if you bought a ticket to the Van Gogh exhibition) that was basically an Instagram trap. Like the London museum, it also had a room that looked like “Bedroom in Arles” brought to life and featured video screens and other three dimensional play areas. I do not personally have any qualms with this pop up experience. While I do believe that simply going to a museum is, in itself, a worthwhile experience, I also really like interactive displays. Part of my issue with people who take a purely conservationist stance (not to say that they are wrong) is that just looking at a painting is not always necessarily what the artist intended and immersive exhibits such as this one can help to bridge a gap of accessibility.
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