An internationally acclaimed large-scale, immersive, multi-sensory experience telling the story of Vincent Van Gogh’s prolific career as an artist opens in Canberra this week.

Van Gogh Alive will be held on Canberra’s Parkes Place Lawns from Saturday 5 March, to coincide with the 2022 Enlighten Festival.

The exhibit will be held in a weatherproof 70x25m ‘Grand Pavilion’ bespoke marquee described as a “massive multi-sensory gallery”.

The mass-scale experience has been visited by over 8 million people across 75+ cities around the world including Moscow, Beijing and London.

Founder and CEO of Grande Experiences, Bruce Peterson, told Canberra Daily last November that the Van Gogh Alive experience is akin to “a walk through a cinematic production”.

High-definition projectors cast 3000 images telling Vincent Van Gogh’s story, many animated with movement, onto 32 Imax-sized screens.

The images are synchronised to a popular classical music score, while an aroma evoking southern France permeates the space.

Rooms in the pavilion dedicated to Van Gogh’s most recognisable masterpieces, Sunflowers and Starry Night, are sure to saturate many Canberra Instagram feeds this month.

“It’s going to be something unlike most people have ever seen before,” Peterson said.

He said the idea behind combining sight, sense and sound is to get the human senses working in unison to evoke an amplified response.

“It’s often an emotional one, and Vincent has a wonderful emotional story told through paintings, landscapes, and music.”

‘They don’t have to understand who Vincent is’

Peterson was inspired to establish his business while spending 12 months in Italy with his family back in 2005-06.

He went there to work on a comprehensive Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit that would bring to life the Renaissance Man’s many inventions, paintings and sketches.

While there, he took his family to some of the world’s finest museums and galleries but found his young children were not interested in the traditional experiences offered.

“After being inside for five or so minutes, my kids would give me a tug on the hip pockets and say ‘let’s get going, let’s get an ice cream or a gelati’,” he smiled.

Pressing his kids on why they were bored, they told him “nothing was happening”.

“One of my daughters said a bit of music would be good, and that was my aha moment.”

The idea behind Grande Experiences installations is broad appeal while retaining artistic integrity; drawing in families and those who wouldn’t normally frequent a typical museum or gallery in addition to those highly interested in arts and culture because it’s a new way to experience it.

“They don’t have to understand who Vincent is, his genre, or anything about art history,” Peterson said.

“They just get lost in the big, broad brush strokes, colour and music, and for kids it means their first experience is a happy one, and I think that’s really important.”

Having grown up in Canberra, Peterson said he’s excited to be able to attend the official launch here, which will take place in the Parliamentary Triangle later this week.

Based in Melbourne, COVID-19 restrictions saw him miss recent openings in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Adelaide and Brisbane.

“It’ll be the first opening I get to on this tour,” he said.

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