Inside a masterpiece

An animated exhibition offers an immersive experience into world of 19th and 20th century artists

Step into the world of Vincent van Gogh. Or find yourself inside a painting by Claude Monet. Or else, see how the artistic era changed from one artist to the other.
 
“The Drifting Canvas”, a multimedia art exposition that is coming to India for the first time with digitised and animated works of 19th and 20th century artists, is offering a unique, immersive experience of art. Besides Monet and van Gogh, visitors can engage with the creations of Edgar Degas, Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Gauguin, Henri Rousseau, Gustav Klimt, Paul Signac, Amedeo Modigliani and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
 
A 14,000-sq-ft hangar is being created in the plaza area of Select City Mall in Delhi for the exposition that will later travel to Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru. “It will be a three-step experience,” says N Manikantan, the CEO of Esperienza Exhibitions, which is organising the exposition in India.

 
It begins with the anteroom where 12 walls offer a glimpse into the life and history of the artists and the changes that art underwent over 100 years (1860 to 1960) in different genres: portrait, landscape, still life and composition. The audience can see how paintings transitioned to the period of abstract art and undertake the visual journey through the canvasses of Avant-Garde artists as they moved from copying the world around them to creating their own worlds.
 
The next stop is the multimedia hall, where over 1,000 animated artworks projected on large video walls come to life one by one, moving to the music as though in a whirlpool of colour and sound. It is here that the artists and their impressions of the world are truly revealed. There’s Signac, who turned everything he saw into myriad dots of light. There is Gauguin, who is recognised for his experimental use of colour and synthetist style. Or there’s Malevich, a pioneer of geometric abstract art.
 
The intricacies of a particular artist’s work are also magnified on screen. Take Degas, for example. The smaller intricacies of his work that you might ordinarily miss are also animated and brought out, sometimes zooming in on the audience and then fading away as another part of the painting takes over. Each screen reflects unrepeated content, keeping eyes and emotions engaged.
 
Next comes the interactive zone where 3D walls allow visitors to literally “enter a painting” and take pictures of themselves “inside it”. It’s a selfie addict’s paradise.
 
There will also be eight original art exhibitions that feature some established and a few upcoming artists from India. Further up will be trick art walls and a books and souvenir shop.
 
Russia-based ArtPlay, which has built this content, has until now organised this exposition in 12 countries, including China, Singapore, Brazil and Poland.

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 ‘The Drifting Canvas’ can be viewed at Select Citywalk in Delhi from April 14 to June 13. It will then travel to Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru