Beyond Van Gogh at Exhibition Centre, Liverpool Review
DISCLOSURE – THIS EXPERIENCE WAS GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST/S FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW.
Reviewed by Emily B
Miami, San Diego, Sao Paolo; the immersive multimedia experience, Beyond Van Gogh, has now arrived in the UK, opening in Birmingham, Glasgow, and Liverpool. Having been disappointed to miss a similar installation in Salford’s Media City in 2021 I took my husband, toddler, and mum to Liverpool to finally experience Van Gogh in this unique way.
We arrived at the Exhibition Centre and joined the queue for our allotted time slot. On the way to the queue we passed a cafe and coffee shop with people enjoying hot drinks and delicious looking pastries. We wished we’d arrived earlier for a coffee and something to eat!
The beginning of the experience is informative; you meander through the prescribed route which is bordered by displays showing biographical information and quotes by Van Gogh, with his artwork in the background. The other side of the route is lined with floating gilded picture frames. While very interesting, this section is (maybe intentionally) a bottleneck and a queue forms quickly. There’s a lot of text and wasn’t engaging for younger children.
Next up is a small antechamber to the main experience. A small room with two exit doors, projecting colours and textures onto the wall and floor. The gasp from my toddler as we entered this room was pure joy. We stayed to dance in the swirling patterns before moving through into the main event.
The main exhibit is beautiful. The ginormous space is bare except for a small number of benches, which allows the artwork projections to dominate. They are projected across walls, columns, and the floor, and accompanied by music and sometimes audio. Not only do the images change but the detail within them is also fluid. Flapping birds, rotating windmill sails, rippling water, dripping paint; small details of the painting are brought to life. We were so impressed with the way in which some paintings were constructed in front of our eyes, built up in sections and with technique, almost as though we were watching Van Gogh painting it. Photos are encouraged, without a flash, and it’s very easy to watch it all through your phone as you want to capture everything. My tip: try to put your phone to one side for a while so you can experience it.
Van Gogh is very well known for specific paintings: Sunflowers, The Starry Night (my favourite), My Bedroom in Arles, and Café Terrace at Night. These pieces do all feature in the exhibition but they do not dominate it. Much of the content was lesser known works with bucolic scenes of French cottages, assorted flora, rural Dutch landscape, and portraits. The iconic paintings and justifiably famous but there is so much more than Van Gogh.
There is only a very limited number of seats on the provided benches so many, including myself, chose to sit on the floor. The effect of the music and paintings was calming and reminiscent of baby sensory. We spent approximately 30 minutes in this room watching the paintings and would have stayed much longer had we not been visiting with a toddler. There were children running up and down and playing (including my own) but this exhibition doesn’t offer enough for younger children so sadly it was time to leave before I’d seen The Starry Night. Also consider that if you struggle to stand for long periods then this may be challenging for you.
The exhibition ends with a well stocked gift shop selling posters, cushions, clothes, lanyards, posters, postcards.
We all really enjoyed our visit to Beyond Van Gogh, however in hindsight it wasn’t as suitable for my toddler as I’d expected which meant we couldn’t spend as much time there as we’d wanted. It’s important to note that this is an immersive experience, but it isn’t interactive.
Beyond Van Gogh runs from 27th June to 24th July in Liverpool with tickets priced as follows:
Under 3: £0
4-12 years old :from £15.84
From 13 years: from £26.40
Senior/NHS/Student: from £19.80
*these prices do not include booking fee and are midweek
Tickets can be booked at ticketquarter.co.uk with more information at beyondvangogh.com
https://www.exhibitioncentreliverpool.com/whats-on/beyond-van-gogh/
Rating: 4/5