Melbourne to host permanent immersive digital art gallery with van Gogh spectacular
It’s the eye-popping art spectacular that set the scene in Netflix hit Emily in Paris. And now, a similar attraction is coming to Melbourne.
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Australia’s first-ever permanent immersive digital art gallery will open with an eye-popping Vincent van Gogh spectacular at South Wharf in April.
The Lume, a 3000-square-metre space with 150 high definition projectors and surround sound, will be based at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The Lume will launch with the Vincent van Gogh Experience, a multi-sensory take on the Dutch postimpressionist painter.
“This is a very big deal for Melbourne and Australia,” Bruce Peterson, the Melbourne-based creator of The Lume and van Gogh Experience, said.
“It’s very significant. We have been at the forefront of the immersive digital art movement worldwide, and we are proud to be setting up a permanent gallery in our hone city.”
At The Lume, van Gogh’s work will be transformed into epic-scale masterpieces, blasted on to 11-metre high screens, while synchronised to music and aromas specifically linked to the master paintings.
Mr Peterson said the gallery, similar to venues in Paris and Tokyo, is aiming to shake up the “boring and elite” art world.
To date, Mr Peterson’s company Grande Experiences have staged 195 experiential art events in 145 cities, to 18 million visitors in 32 languages
He said The Lume and van Gogh Experience, wants to take art away from the “unnerving and sometimes intimidating silent galleries and viewing paintings from afar.”
Mr Peterson added: “It’s about making it accessible. Art and culture is for all people, regardless of where you reside, or your social standing. It’s not just for the elite.
“Our challenge is to present art and culture in a way that’s not threatening, and embraces people from all walks of life, especially young people.
“With young people, often their first experience with art and culture is negative, because it’s not exciting or interesting for them.
“I think, for a great number of number of people, there has been a disconnection with the arts culture industry for quite some time.
“Many people haven’t understood the value of what they’re looking at, and don’t have an emotional connection with it. so it becomes a bit ho hum, a bit boring,” Mr Peterson said.
“People want to be engaged, they want to be entertained, and they want to have fun.”
Mr Peterson said the van Gogh Experience packs 3000 images, including paintings, drawings and letters into one presentation.
A smaller version of the van Gogh Experience, a touring show titled van Gogh Alive, is currently playing in Sydney.
At the van Gogh Experience, the painter’s work will be “brought to life using animation and effects … without upsetting the integrity of the art.”
Each movement is synched to a music score, while aromas including citrus and cypress, subtly “evoke a sense of where you are, or a memory”.
While sight, sound and smell are catered for, the taste sense is an optional extra, with food and drink, also linked to van Gogh’s heritage, available inside the gallery.
Of course, this razzle-dazzle take on iconic artists hasn’t happened without complaints.
“I won’t lie, some people said it was a sacrilege,” Mr Peterson said. “There will be curatorial naysayers who say, ‘This isn’t right, this is bastardising the art.’
“But there’s 80 per cent of people out there who don’t go to art galleries; they’re the people we want to engage.”
The Melbourne company also has experiential shows featuring the works Leonardo da Vinci and Monet.
Mr Peterson said: “The leading institutions are starting to realise this is helping them; it’s getting more people involved in art and culture, and it’s getting them back into the galleries.”
Tickets for the Van Gogh Experience at The Lume will go on sale in early 2021.
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