Delayed since last fall, 'Immersive Van Gogh' exhibit opens in Detroit's Harmonie Club
"Immersive Van Gogh," an art experience that takes visitors inside the Dutch post-Impressionist legend’s work, opened Friday inside the Harmonie Club building after multiple delays.
The exhibition, originally scheduled to bow last October and then in February of this year, is the work of Lighthouse Immersive, and has been eagerly awaited throughout the region and beyond. By late February, more than 126,000 tickets had been sold in metro Detroit. The event travels the country, playing in multiple cities at once. It has sold more than 4.5 million tickets nationally.
“When we put tickets on sale in Detroit, we had chosen a venue which, due to circumstances beyond our control, did not work out,” said Lighthouse co-founder Svetlana Dvoretsky. “Ultimately, we are very happy to have found the ideal location in the Harmonie Club, which is an architectural jewel in the heart of the downtown area and also a building that coincidentally was erected only a few short years after Van Gogh's death — and the type of architecture we believe he would have greatly appreciated.”
Lighthouse Immersive creative director David Korins, best known as the set designer for Broadway musicals including "Hamilton," "Dear Evan Hansen," "Beetlejuice" and "Mrs. Doubtfire," has created a lobby element to enhance the guest experience of "Immersive Van Gogh Detroit."
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The show was designed by creative director and Italian film producer Massimiliano Siccardi with original music by Italian multimedia composer Luca Longobardi. More than 50 projectors illuminate more than 14,000 square feet, wrapping visitors from head to toe in Van Gogh’s paintings, including animated details from such works as “Self Portrait with Felt Hat” (1888), “Bedroom in Arles” (1889), “Irises” (1889) and “The Starry Night” (1889).
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Detroit real estate developer Roger Basmajian, who is spearheading the Harmonie Club’s next phase, said it’s a joy to have the exhibit open in the building.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “We put in very, very long days, seven days a week, to make sure they were open on time. So it feels really good. You’ve got to go through it kind of slowly — go in there and relax, sit, walk around and sense the paintings in a different way. You see the brushstrokes; you see the moments and the story. I appreciate art, but I’ve never really immersed myself in it, so it’s a very interesting perspective.”
'Immersive Van Gogh'
Through Sept. 5
Harmonie Club
311 E. Grand River Ave., Detroit
Starting at $39.99 ($24.99 for children 16 and under). Timed and flexible ticket options available.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 'Immersive Van Gogh' opens at Harmonie Club after lengthy delays
