Don’t be fooled by copycat show. There is only one Immersive Van Gogh

By Judy Babb

Even if you are iffy about Van Gogh, Immersive Van Gogh will leave you with your jaw hanging open because of the immersive artistry of its presentation. It’s art in motion and at a size that is hard to describe. The walls in the great hall soar over what looks like miniature people. 

Van Gogh’s beautiful art morphs from one piece to the next. Heads swivel from one side to the other to follow the 360 degree projection as people realize there’s more, no matter which way they look. The paintings seem three dimensional and move, so that the viewers can see the inner workings of the art as if they were walking through the paintings. 

The DallasVanGogh.com website promises a lot and the exhibit delivers. It brags that this is the No. 1 best-selling show in the world. The Dallas venue is in the historic Lighthouse Dallas on S. Harwood St. in the East Quarter of downtown Dallas. The good news is that there is plenty of inexpensive parking nearby. Free street parking may be available. 

The exhibit runs about an hour and is made up of 500,000 cubic feet of projections, 60,600 frames of video and 90,000,000 pixels. Wow. And you can take photos and videos!

While the show runs just less than an hour, no one rushes anyone, and it never felt crowded. The exhibit is made of three rooms, which have the works projected on all four walls, on the floor and often on patrons. The middle room is the largest and has circles projected on the floor. The circles represent social distancing, and most contain chairs or benches. Other people lounge on stadium-like cushions printed with Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Still others lean against the wall. The walls themselves soar 18 feet 10 inches.

Unlike in other exhibit halls or show venues, no one blocks another’s view. The projections are everywhere from floor to the top of the walls. We sat through it twice and were never told to move along. 

The staff is helpful and plentiful. In the middle room, a man asked for a chair for his pregnant wife, who was sitting on the floor. One was quickly found for her. 

Adding to the splendor is the music. The website is worth a visit. A video explains the venue. An audio tells a bit about Van Gogh’s tortured and short life, and how the exhibit came to be. The creators of this exhibit, Massimiliano Siccardi and Luca Longobardi, had a vision. They brought something completely different than an exhibit of the 80 paintings.

“It’s not a conventional art exhibition where the paintings hang on a wall while you walk by them and connect the dots in your own mind at the end. It is a unique combination of art, music and cinematography and immersive theatre that Siccardi has been developing for nearly 30 years,” the audio tells.

In addition to an intriguing website, an app can be loaded onto phones. It’s Lighthouse Immersive. 

Now for a warning. There is an imposter show out there that hopes to cut into the hype and wonder. The real thing is Immersive Van Gogh, and it is in downtown Dallas. The fake is Van Gogh, the Immersive Experience. It’s at Globe Life Park and projects eight, not 80, of Van Gogh’s paintings. Nor is it an experience. The art is projected into a frame. That’s it.

Immersive Van Gogh costs start at $39 for off-peak hours and $49 for peak hours. Children’s tickets (6-16) are $29. Flex tickets are a little more, but allow patrons to enter up to two hours early or after entrance times. Premium tickets are $59, and VIP are $99. There is also a date night package. The exhibit opens at 9 a.m., and the last ticket of the day is for 10 p.m. A gift shop on the first floor offers everything from books to masks to stuffed animals — wonderful items to Gogh home with. Tickets are available at DallasVanGogh.com. The show runs through Oct. 31. Masks are required.

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