Here’s to you Vincent

Today I saw the most amazing art exhibition in the Cathedrale D’images in the medieval village of Les Baux. The village is known for its haunting rock formations, picturesque ruins and gigantic stone quarries. The quarries have since been shut down and transformed into deep caverns with flat walls and high ceilings. Some artistically gifted genius cooked up the idea to project large-scale works of art onto the quarry walls and accompany them with various classical music. The images shift and change with the music and span every wall and much of the ground, literally surrounding you floor to ceiling with art. Last year transformed the quarry into Venice and this year was the much-anticipated Van Gogh exhibit. We walked into the quarry to soothing cello music backing the bright ochre tones Van Gogh so artfully mastered. His haystacks transformed into bedrooms, to self portraits, to still lifes. The entire quarry turned into a starry night and then the sun rose through a metamorphosis of his paintings. A haunting a capella piece glided through the air as I was dwarfed by at least 15 projections of Vincent’s eyes staring down from the walls. Aside from the sunrise, my favorite part was the water. I sat down on a bench where I could see multiple walls all covered in paintings of sailboats and seas. The projections gave the paintings movement and the lilting voices of the Saint-Saens chorus meshed perfectly with the surroundings. Overall it was absolutely incredible and if you're ever in the area, GO; especially while the Van Gogh exhibit is still being shown. I've always enjoyed his work but this amped it up to the next level. While his homelife may not have been the most stable thing on earth, the man had some crazy passion and it definitely shows in his paintings.