How Delhi's FOMO made Van Gogh 360, a mediocre projector art show, an Instagram hit

Vincent Van Gogh died penniless in his lifetime so that his paintings could then be projected on walls for an “immersive 360 experience” priced at a meagre 1,000 rupees for weekdays and 1,500 for weekends. That is the case with Van Gogh 360 that got introduced to India this year (as can be seen already with the endless Instagram Reels). 

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With the immersive art show introduced in Mumbai first, the folks at Delhi-NCR began to get a massive case of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out in case you don’t speak Gen-Z). But then BookMyShow introduced it to the DLF Cyberhub at Gurugram this April for over two weeks. Regardless if you like Van Gogh or not, the Van Gogh 360 became the place to be at, with many flocking out of perhaps social media-induced peer pressure. 

But then in case some missed out on the Delhi show and still suffered from FOMO, the show was extended up to May and more recently, till June. On June 11 (Sunday), the last show (so far) concluded and I got a chance to attend the immersive experience at Gurugram (after paying for a Rs 1,500 ticket of course). 

I, like many, wished to know what the hype was all about. And to describe it best, the experience turned out to yield some mixed results. By now, you would already know how an average Van Gogh 360 screening plays out. You enter a huge room with blank walls; projectors hanging from its ceiling. 

Then, the projectors begin projecting some of Van Gogh’s finest artworks on the walls around you as well as the floor that you’re walking on. Sunflowers, self-portraits, starry nights, you will be surrounded by all of Van Gogh’s greatest hits (which he could hardly sell in his ill-fated and mentally-troubled lifetime). 

Some cliched violin musical pieces set the ambience and you can roam around to take in the art or just record it for an Instagram story or two. A few seats and bean bags are scattered all over the room for you to just lethargically glance at the projections around you. The solo spectators who hadn’t arrived with their significant other or their family or their toddlers in prams (yes, there were many), were perched on to the bean bags, refusing to give up their spot for anyone else. 

The artistic projections in question were vibrant and melancholic but the credit obviously goes to Van Gogh and not the organisers. After all, the Dutch artist’s modern relevance can be understood from the million “artsy” Instagram pages that rely on rehashing A Starry Night in poems, fan edits and what not. Regardless of whether you blindly adore Van Gogh’s work or are bogged down by his new-age mainstream-ness, you can’t deny that Van Gogh is timeless and very, very Instagrammable.  

That’s the very reason you can convince people to pay more than a thousand bucks to stare at projections on walls. The show is bound to get tiresome and rather bland for many for its core logistical concepts. 

Perhaps the biggest issue right from stepping into the immersive room is the fact that it’s not really 360 (if you count the top). With the projectors resting on the ceiling, there is no potential for Van Gogh’s starry nights to be screened on top of you. Otherwise, a planetarium-like environment would have been set with Van Gogh’s brushstrokes painting the sky above you. The couples who come to Van Gogh 360 for Instagram purposes would have definitely recorded some La La Land-style videos then!

Even if you forgive the blank ceiling, you would still expect some crystal-clear clarity when it came to the rest of the walls. While the sunflower fields and the table of potato eaters are clear and colourful enough when viewed from a distance, some of the paintings can appear quite drab and blurry if you view them up close. 

Again, you can excuse the organisers as they are merely projecting the art towards you. It’s not like you’re bearing witness to an actual painting. But for a show that promises its audience an “immersive” experience, Van Gogh 360 falls short with these occasional blurs. And blame me for keeping high expectations but I expected something more than just animated transitions and ambient music to make this Van Gogh eulogy more immersive. 

As Delhi-based musician Faizan remarked at the event, “I think it’ll eventually just be a thing in VR headsets and that’ll still be more worth it than tickets costing Rs 1,500.”

Now, I am not asking DLF Malls and Absolut (who were responsible for hosting the Dehi edition) to make me sit through a 4DX movie or wear a VR headset but there’s only so much that a sky of twinkling stars and Van Gogh’s human muses walking around can do. For a showcase that lasts 30 to 35 minutes, the animated artworks can get tedious and not that “immersive”. 

Experiencing Van Gogh 360 can help you get brownie points on social media but the overpriced tickets would make you wonder “Is it really worth it?” The question begs to be asked even in the Instagram context as now that everyone who went there has blabbered on and on about Van Gogh 360; the show (much like Van Gogh’s own art) has become unabashedly mainstream. 

Of course, Van Gogh 360 has also entertained dedicated aficionados of the artist like Madhav, this self-admitted “Van Gogh simp” who showed up in a A Starry Night T-shirt. 

Talking about tees, once you step out of the immersive room, you can have a peek at a souvenir store where simple T-shirts with one of Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings printed are being sold at Rs 899 (what else did you expect?).  

Once I walked past the overpriced souvenirs and out into the Gurugram heat, I just realised how Instagram sold this show but also turned it into an overhyped disappointment. However, even if people might get tired of Van Gogh now, this idea of overcharging for projector shows still sounds like a good idea. I just need some friends to invest in some high-end projectors, get an animator on board and host weekly art shows in empty garage spaces.

One week, I will have a Basquiat 360 Experience and a Raja Ravi Verma show in the next one. If some visitors can build up hype for this on Instagram, I can successfully overcharge them with Rs 1,500 tickets.