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Van Gogh comes alive in Canberra

Van Gogh Alive Canberra
Van Gogh Alive producer, Andrew Kay, said the transportable โ€˜Grand Pavilionโ€™ that houses the exhibition took seven weeks to set up atop the Parkes Place Lawns. Photos: Denholm Samaras

Van Gogh Alive, an immersive, sensory experience that brings the eponymous artistโ€™s extraordinary body of work to life, opened in Canberra to great fanfare on Friday 4 March.

Set inside the worldโ€™s largest transportable exhibition building, dubbed The Grand Pavilion, it took organisers seven weeks to set it up atop the Federation Centenary Fountains on Parkes Place Lawns.

โ€œWhat a location,โ€ Van Gogh Alive producer, Andrew Kay, told Canberra Daily, โ€œthe fountain hasnโ€™t been used for 40 years, and we have the cheek to put a building on top of it!โ€

Taking such a prominent location meant it wasnโ€™t a straightforward build: they encountered anti vaccine mandate protestors and had to remove 40 yearsโ€™ worth of duck poo from the fountains.

โ€œWeโ€™ve had to clean the entire site for the first time in decades, and then build.โ€

Unlike a typical art exhibition, Van Gogh Alive starts โ€œthe moment you walk toward the buildingโ€.

The interiors – all designed by Australian theatrical designer Anna Cordingley โ€“ whisk you out of Canberra and into another world where Van Goghโ€™s beautiful post-impressionist paintings have been brought to life.

Rooms in the pavilion dedicated to Van Goghโ€™s most recognisable masterpieces, Sunflowers and Starry Night, are sure to saturate many Canberra Instagram feeds during the exhibitionโ€™s five-week stay.

โ€œPeople walk in that door, look at the beautiful ceiling, and it starts from there,โ€ Kay said. โ€œAnd a lot of people leave crying because itโ€™s an emotional experience looking at his life.โ€

High-definition projectors cast 3000 images telling the Dutch artistโ€™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.

The 42-minute projection display tells Van Goghโ€™s life story in chronological order, starting in his homeland, the Netherlands, where he painted primarily in black and white. From there we go to France, where he both discovered colour and suffered a host of mental health issues that had him admitted to an asylum โ€“ where he painted Starry Night.

Throughout the show, excerpts from letters Van Gogh sent home are projected, detailing โ€œthe torment of his lifeโ€.

โ€œVan Gogh is such an interesting guy, he really did die not knowing he was a success, so itโ€™s a tragic story,โ€ Kay said.


Audiences get lost in ‘the big, broad brushstrokes’

Van Gogh Alive Canberra
Van Gogh Alive host, renowned actress and occasional retail assistant, Amanda Muggleton, has derived great joy from the โ€œplethora of lifeโ€ she has encountered on the job.

For Van Gogh Alive host and occasional retail assistant, Amanda Muggleton, moving from the familiarity of the theatre to the unknown of a permanent exhibition space has been โ€œheavenlyโ€.

โ€œFor the first month I did nothing but sob and cry, because I realised what a sheltered life Iโ€™ve led; Iโ€™ve either been in front of a camera or behind a proscenium arch.

โ€œItโ€™s like someoneโ€™s given me a safety rope Iโ€™ve never had in the 45-50 years Iโ€™ve been acting.โ€

Spending her time leading groups through the exhibition and working the merchandise stand on occasion, Muggleton has derived great joy from the โ€œplethora of lifeโ€ she has encountered on the job.

โ€œYou have everyone from intellectuals through to people who have never been to anything like this in their life, and theyโ€™re the ones I love because theyโ€™re so blown away by what they see in there.โ€

Founder and CEO of Grande Experiences, Bruce Peterson, said the Van Gogh Alive experience is akin to โ€œa walk through a cinematic productionโ€.

โ€œThey donโ€™t have to understand who Vincent is, his genre, or anything about art history,โ€ he said. โ€œThey just get lost in the big, broad, brush strokes, colour and music, and for kids it means their first [art exhibition] experience is a happy one, and I think thatโ€™s really important.โ€

Van Gogh Alive is on in Canberra at the Grand Pavilion at Parkes Place Lawns, National Triangle until 10 April; vangoghalive.com.au

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