Extraordinary exhibition in the beautiful church “Santo Stefano al Ponte”.

After the great success known in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Budapest and Milan, the Van Gogh Alive exhibition has arrived in Florence just a few steps away from Ponte Vecchio, in the beautiful deconsecrated church “Santo Stefano al Ponte”. The exhibition, that will remain open until April 12, is a new way to experience and learn about art, in a fascinating and educational way. Produced and created by “Grande Exhibitions” and “Perlage Grandi Eventi”, Van Gogh Alive is a visual and musical experience, engaging for both children and adults. The masterpieces of Van Gogh come to life, in a vibrant symphony of lights, colors and sounds. “This is an unprecedented visual and very popular experience, meant to bring closer to the world of Van Gogh, his imagination and his works, a public less accustomed to frequent the halls of museums and exhibitions – said the Italian curator of the exhibition, Fabio Di Gioia – and for the first time Van Gogh Alive has been integrated in a very particular architecture such as that of a church. The feeling offered by the viewing of the multimedia exhibition in the context of Santo Stefano, is a never before experienced in the world emotion”. We will find ourselves immersed in a multimedia, probably never experienced in this way before: the masterpieces of Van Gogh will be the ones to come to life before our eyes, in a riot of colors and sounds made possible by a groundbreaking audio-video system. More than three thousand images will be generated in high definition thanks to the innovative system SENSORY4 that builds an extraordinary museum and narrates an entire journey through the creative and visionary universe of artist: from the intense colors to the tumultuous existential event. SENSORY4 uses a unique system that incorporates 40 high-definition projectors, graphics and a multi-channel surround sound system just like the ones used in cinema halls. This is the reason why it has been defined as one of the most engaging multiscreen environments in the world. Large images, sharp and clear, so real you will almost want to touch them with your hand, light up screens and surfaces, all tailored to the Church of Santo Stefano al Ponte. Since his beginnings in the Netherlands, to the Paris of the Impressionists, until his permanently stay in Arles, Saint Rémy and Auvers-sur-Oise, where he painted many of his timeless masterpieces, Van Gogh Alive offers the public a total immersion into brilliant painting and controversy of the artist: from the Potato Eaters, to the famous Sunflowers – to which Van Gogh felt irresistibly drawn, so much that he wrote “In a certain sense, the sunflower, belongs to me” – from the Starry Nights to the haunting, last painting, Wheatfield with Crows. The path that guides us through the paintings of Van Gogh – divided into “movements” like musical sheets – will be enriched by the projection of drawings of his works, which will enable the public to know the creative genesis of the paintings, and excerpts from the letters, all capable of offering an insight into the artist’s life, envisioning his ideas and his inner torment. Collected and published by the sister of Van Gogh, Jo Van Gogh-Bonger, the corpus of 902 letters, addressed to his brother Theo and his friends, told through the words of Vincent, stories about the artist’s work, his sources of inspiration, the dark drama of insanity with which he struggled, unable to save himself. The high definition of the projected images will also allow an interesting viewing and close-ups with details of the works, the extraordinary technique, unique and avant-garde for its time and his use of color. All of this will be accompanied by the music of Handel, Tiersen, Lalo, Delibes, Viseur, Barber, Schubert, Kusturica, Godard, Part, Chabrier, Nielsen, Sakura, Satie, Zorn, Saint-Saëns, Liszt, Delibes and Godard. The exhibition will also be accompanied by events and art workshops on painting and drawing, supervised by Winsor & Newton, the world leader in materials for two-dimensional visual arts. Don’t miss the chance to see this incredible event, it’s really worth it.

Ela Vasilescu

The exhibition is open until April 12

Santo Stefano al Ponte

(Ponte Vecchio)

Piazza Santo Stefano, 5

Open every day

from 10 am to 8 pm

Subject to change,

it is recommended always

consult the site

www.vangoghalive.it

also for the evening and weekends.