There have been many events at Xintiandi recently, and the entire area has been taken over by various art installations. Moreover, right by Xintiandi Lake, there is a rather large exhibition: Van Gogh Alive, an immersive sensory art experience. The exhibition runs for quite a while, all the way until August 30th. Taking advantage of a friend having tickets, I went early to check it out. The entire exhibition hall was temporarily erected by the lake, covering an area of 2,500 square meters, and the air conditioning inside was pretty strong. I went on a weekday morning, so there weren’t too many people. Actually, the exhibition space isn’t that huge; with a limit of 1,500 people every two hours, it still felt quite crowded. I wonder if it will be packed during the May Day holiday…
At the beginning, there is a fairly large foyer, which includes the ticket office, service desk, a replica café based on “Café Terrace at Night,” and a Cadillac exhibition area:
After having your ticket checked and entering the exhibition hall, you first encounter a winding corridor featuring a few quotes from Van Gogh and line drawings. If there aren’t many people around, it’s a nice spot to take a few photos.
Next comes the introduction to this exhibition, an overview of SENSORY4, and stories behind Van Gogh’s masterpieces. However, the text in this section feels a bit too small and there’s a lot of content—plus, you can find all this information online anyway, so there’s no need to read it carefully on-site. But if you have zero knowledge of Van Gogh’s work before visiting, you might want to give it a quick glance…
nFurther inside, you reach the immersive gallery. Forty projectors illuminate a multitude of screens of varying heights. The film runs for about 35 minutes, showcasing Van Gogh’s paintings from various periods. It starts with a compilation of works from specific eras, then presents key masterpieces one by one, all accompanied by music—the production quality is quite good. If there were no other visitors, I think the overall visual and audio experience would be decent, aside from the slightly low resolution where things get blurry up close… But once crowds gather, it feels just like being at the World Expo… You have to stand the whole time, and people are constantly blocking your view. While being surrounded by screens creates a cool atmosphere, purely in terms of viewing the content, it’s far less enjoyable than watching a movie in a cinema… Plus, the ticket price here is much higher than an IMAX ticket…
nAnother issue is kids running around everywhere. It’s really hard to understand why parents bring young children to this kind of exhibition… Uncontrollable kids have become public enemies in all sorts of venues these days—whether in lounges, restaurants, on planes and trains, or at exhibitions. Parents, please keep an eye on your children! The world is dangerous, and things are expensive; if anything gets broken, no one can afford to pay for the damages.
nSo, to sum it up: if you can score free tickets through any channel, it’s worth checking out—but buying tickets yourself probably isn’t worth it. Also, remember to make a reservation in advance before you go.
Photos in this post taken with a SONY A5100 + 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, post-processed in Lightroom.
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