Immersive Van Gogh

We're early adopters, but not always *this* early. Immersive Van Gogh opened today in Minneapolis; it had been rescheduled a couple of times, so we ended up with de facto opening day tickets (NOT VIP tickets which give you a floor pad and a poster, which did not seem worth it to me).

It's located in NE Minneapolis, next to where Nimbus used to be. The parking is only valet (long wait, and expensive at $12), so we parked around the corner and, though we were early for our time slot we were able to go right in.

The first thing I realized when is that art history is a language, and one I am very fortunate to be well-versed in (thank you Hazel, and so many teachers after her). There is an app for the show you can download and get some info on, but I would highly recommend, before you go, spending some time re-familarizing yourself with his work by picking up a book on him or surfing around online. So many of the paintings that feature in the show are ones I have seen and know well, and that gave me a huge advantage, I think.

Next thing — know that this is a wordless, half-hour looping video projection — think the kind of thing that you might see in a small theater room while walking into an art exhibition (though this is inherently much more massive). The images are manipulated, and changed, and reversed, and only sometimes used as is. You're not there to see the art, or even to earn — instead it's kind of like a meditation that washes over you. For those of you who saw the Marlene Myles projections last year as part of the Great Northern Festival, in some ways it's not unlike that.

One more tip — the music is loud. They have earplugs, but once you get in, you don't want to go back out and suss how to get them. Better to bring them in and not use them.

There are two "galleries," both showing the loop at the same time. Gallery #1 is smaller, and the first one you go into. It's more crowded, smaller, lower ceiling, and the floor is glossy black so you don't get the projections on it. Its main advantage, as far as I could tell, was that the AC worked better.

I highly recommend doing what we did, which was to move immediately into Gallery #2. It's larger, the projections are all around you, and it's a lot more immersive.

We arrived partway through the loop, and at first sat in one of the circles on the floor and just tried to suss out what was going on around us. When it started again, we moved to a bench. Honestly, I liked the floor better — though it was hard, you could turn around and look all through the room. I suppose this is one place where the VIP pad would be nice.

The circles do allow for good distancing, though it was more crowded than I expected, and they were not allowing many of the covid protocols their page says they would do (such as temperature checking.) Masks were required, though.

Once you kind of got your bearings — where to sit, how it worked — and just at there and let it was over you, it was a very good experience, sort of like an art-based meditation. The music, the images, the being in a place surrounded with it all.

We sat through 1.5 loops of the film, and I honestly could have spent another hour there.

I don't know how it is in non-covid times, but here everyone went to one place, then sat in their light circle and did not really move. We walked around a little, and I enjoyed experiencing it from different angles and perceptions (on the floor, on a bench, sitting, standing, in varying places in the rooms).

So I have to say that in general I would rather have spent that time and money walking through the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. But that's not really an option right now. And I see this as one of the first forays into this kind of experience — who knows how they will develop in the future? And it is eminently photographable, though taking pictures of a video does seem kind of strange.

All in all, I am very glad we went and think it was well worth it. I wish we had known a *little* more about it going in, so I hope my review/tips help you to prepare if you are going! I would go back in a heartbeat if I could!