Introduction Gabrielle de la Cruz
Interview Patrick Kasingsing
Images Grande Experiences and Patrick Kasingsing
It is time to walk amidst the sunflowers and the starry skies again. Van Gogh Alive, the interactive exhibit by Grande Experiences opens today, October 20, 2023, at the BGC Arts Center (Maybank Performing Arts Theater) in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
Sponsored by the Bonifacio Art Foundation, Inc. and Del Monte Philippines, Van Gogh Alive brings the Dutch master’s works out of the gallery and reinterprets them into an immersive exhibition that utilizes sight, sound, and even smell to tell his colorful life story. Melbourne-based Grande Experiences made use of over 3,000 images chronicling Van Gogh’s life journey, which were then projected through their state-of-the-art SENSORY4™ system; enormous, pin-sharp and vibrant images out of Van Gogh’s life and oeuvre engulfs and enraptures the visitor as they move through the gallery space. A Drawing Room awaits visitors who wish to emulate Van Gogh’s masterworks, followed by the Sunflower Mirror room, a mirrored tunnel teeming with a hundred sunflower blooms. The exhibit is bookended by a life-sized, interactive replica of the artist’ bedroom in Arles.
Kanto.com.ph got an exclusive peek at Van Gogh Alive and a sit-down interview with Maria Isabel Garcia, managing director and curator of the Bonifacio Art Foundation a day before the opening.
Hello Ms. Garcia! Welcome to Kanto! The Van Gogh Alive exhibit arrives at an interesting time, with several artist-led immersive exhibitions still running or just wrapped up. What makes this iteration of Van Gogh Alive different from its immersive contemporaries? How is it different in terms of experiences on offer and the goals you want to achieve for the show?
Maria Isabel Garcia: I think what you will see in Van Gogh Alive is an ultra-cohesive story. That is, you have to be in a coma not to understand the whole journey he’s been through in the show. The cohesive and unified story of the quintessential journey of an artist is present there, and for us, that was so important to nail. Everyone in our team really wanted that out as a message to everyone and for the Pinoy to experience. We wanted Van Gogh Alive here not just to ride the trend, but also to make sure that Filipinos who can’t afford to go elsewhere to see it can experience it. When they grow up, especially kids, they can understand what the buzz is all about with this guy who cut off his ear. So, we wanted to afford your come to audiences that.
Immersive exhibitions like Van Gogh Alive help democratize access to art cordoned off in galleries or in places far from our shores and help retell the stories of the artists behind the work in an engaging manner. However, and maybe this is where I find my personal gripes as a Fine Arts grad, this carries the danger of demoting artworks as backdrops or mere spectacles for social media posts, or that the nuances and edges in the artist’s life and work are smoothened out for public consumption.
Can you let us in on how the exhibit addresses these challenges and what are the efforts pursued by the exhibit to ensure that the artist and his work, especially someone as universally loved as Van Gogh were treated with sensitivity and respect?
That is the one thing that stands out in your generation because you were born with technology; you have a bit of trouble ascertaining between things that exist and what you do with them. What exists is the exhibition, our unadulterated and undisguised retelling of Van Gogh’s story, and what you do with it is your own thing. I cannot whip you to pay attention if you don’t pay attention yourselves. So, no matter how many screens, no matter how many pictures, how much color, or motion graphics we put in there if you yourself don’t know how to pay attention and are held captive by the 8-second attention span you have in your brains, we can’t do anything about it.
But you know, the shocking, most beautiful surprise in the Van Gogh Alive crowd earlier? They were so thoughtful! I don’t know if you noticed. They were so thoughtful. Everyone was just so quiet and mindful, absorbing all that was happening. Whatever it was they were thinking, I do not know and do not need to know but the mindfulness needed to absorb and really draw the best out of this exhibit appears to be there.
So rather than a question to me, I challenge you guys and your generation. Experience is nothing without reflection and insight. We cannot give you reflection. We can just give you space and the visual prompts. We cannot give you insight. You have to come out with it yourselves. We give you the opportunities, it’s up to you to mine them. But don’t you agree? Do you want me to do that for you? It will not mean anything if I do that for you.
Totally agree!
And I hope many people realize, I guess with the help of this exhibit, that what you do with what you know is your thing, not the schools, not the museums. It’s your thing when you sleep at night and process these things, it’s your thing!
Right. Yeah, and I could think of no other artist better suited to teach this lesson than Van Gogh. Okay, so the entire exhibit is a sensorial experience, where sight, touch, and even smell are stimulated, but beyond photogenic moments, what sort of values or insights would you like for guests and visitors to pick up from the show?
It is the precursor to every insight and reflection. Paying attention is the most prized thing, I think in the 21st Century because no one pays attention anymore. They take shots. But they never pay attention. You just see proof. A burning planet, everyone at war…If we all paid attention, and took the time to understand, to reflect, do you really think we’d come to disastrous stuff like that? So, the value is really to pay attention. We use Van Gogh. With all his failings and with all his shortcomings, and with all his dark, dark, dark things. Because maybe we’ll pay attention. But you also need to be careful about what you pay attention to. It defines who you are at the end.
Right. Thank you for that. And lastly, what surprising aspect or quality of Van Gogh’s life and works do you think is best communicated through this type of interactive and immersive exhibition?
You’re a Fine Arts graduate. You know this. Seeing a painting in acrylic form on a canvas is quite different from the projection mapping we have at the back. I’ve seen Van Gogh’s works in person. His actual work, and it’s a very different experience doing this. It is not highbrow or lowbrow. It’s just very different.
And your generation is so lucky that you can have layers, layers, upon layers of ways to experience an art form. So, I don’t buy the question asked earlier in the morning by a member of the press about my thoughts on the so-called divide between fine art, immersive art and technology, and crypto art…that divide is BS I mean, it’s a divide that’s in your head. I also don’t buy high art, low art, whatever art. If you connect with it, then go! good for you! Nobody can tell you what good art is, or what bad art is; so, if people connect with a certain artwork or art form then great! All’s well and good! The vital thing here is a connection is forged, and it is these connections that lead to insight and inspiration! •
Thank you very much for your time!
Van Gogh Alive at the BGC Arts Center (Maybank Performing Arts Theater) is presented by the Bonifacio Art Foundation, Inc. with Del Monte Philippines.
The exhibit opens to the public from Friday, October 20, and from Tuesdays to Sundays after. The show starts at 10AM to 8PM on weekdays and 10AM to 10PM on weekends. Tickets can be purchased at bit.ly/VanGoghAliveTickets and at BGC Arts Center TicketWorld Box Office.
