Is the immersive Van Gogh and Portinari exhibition in Brazil a farce or a spectacle?

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Conservatives usually get in trouble, at least in the art world. In 1917, when attacking an exhibition by Anita Malfatti, who introduced modern art to Brazil, Monteiro Lobato wrote:

“Let’s be honest: futurism, cubism, impressionism, and ‘tutti quanti’ are nothing but other branches of caricature art”.

Countless critics of the new trends have been embarrassed throughout the centuries.

Although the comparison is inaccurate since it is not about analyzing the work itself, the Lobato vs. Malfatti case can also be evoked in a reflection about a model that has been gaining space: the “immersive” exhibitions, such as “Beyond Van Gogh“, on tour in Brazil (in Rio, it is the variant “Van Gogh Live – 8k”), and “Portinari for All”, in São Paulo.

These are exhibitions without the artists’ works, presented in high-quality projections and dimensions or reproductions. With rooms with scenographic elements, the shows make the visitor challenge his cell phone’s capacity to store selfies.

But it would be unfair to say that it is merely an amusement park: both exhibitions devote generous space to didacticism, with biographical and curatorial texts on digital displays (rather than the traditional, static wall text).

“Beyond Van Gogh” attracted 370,000 people in the four months it was on display at Morumbi Mall, São Paulo City, with tickets costing up to R$100 (US$18) (R$270 for the kids’ version).

The record for one of the country’s leading museums, the Masp, is 402,850 people during three months of 2019 to see Tarsila do Amaral. On display since March, “Portinari for Everyone” has already gathered around 200,000 people and has been extended to the end of this month.

Since at least the 1990s, blockbuster art exhibitions have been questioned by critics for sometimes putting the unbridled search for public and profit ahead of curatorial rigor, among other issues.

A new parameter emerged in 2008 when British Peter Greenaway created a multimedia installation based on Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”. But justifications abounded: it was a renowned artist rereading an “immovable” work on a wall in a church in Milan.

The question gets more muddled now. Why not have a large, traditional exhibition, with the “real” paintings, instead of giant high-definition projections? Curator Marcello Dantas cites factors similar to the Da Vinci case when discussing the Brazilian modernist.

“The exhibition matches the nature of Candido Portinari, who wished to be popular and made large murals difficult to move,” he says. With dimensions of 14m x 10m, for example, the panels “War” and “Peace”, created in the 1950s for the UN headquarters in New York, toured Brazil in 2011 after being restored, in an endeavor that cost about R$17 million.

In an exhibition like the current one, there is the possibility of presenting for the first time to the public this and many other works simultaneously, or at least a digital version.

Dantas refutes the criticism that this is a mere slideshow since such immersive exhibitions have only become the spectacle they are today due to the advancement of technology. “Ten years ago, a pixel was the size of a brick,” he says.

Divided into three exhibition areas with eight rooms, the exhibition dismantles the grouchy critic’s argument that the show is just a backdrop for selfies or pranks – of original, there are only the artist’s instruments of work.

Dantas is also the curator of “Portinari Raro” at CCBB in Rio, with 54 “traditional” works.

He says this show’s success is the greatest proof that an “immersive” exhibition does not “steal” the public. On the contrary, it would stimulate many, especially children, to seek the originals. “This is how you protect the cultural memory of a people. In this divided Brazil, we cannot afford to make the public shy away from culture.”

Both the MIS Experience exhibition (a space created in a former TV Cultura studio, chosen because of its high ceiling of about 10 meters) and the Van Gogh exhibition cause a sense of strangeness à la “Black Mirror”, with a bunch of people walking around with their arms outstretched and their eyes fixed on their cell phones, miraculously without any noticeable bumps.

The idea is to make the visitor feel like he is inside a painting and judging by the “wows” and “ohs” from the audience, you can imagine that the organizers have succeeded.

The main room of “Van Gogh” is 730 square meters, with 500 square meters of fabric spread throughout the space, which becomes a large mobile screen. The part of the public not standing filming or photographing is seated or lying on the floor, as if they were in a park or watching TV in bed.

“We are democratizing access to art,” says Rafael Reisman, CEO of Blast Entertainment, responsible for bringing the American Primo Entertainment show that has already passed through 30 countries to Brazil.

According to a GEM survey with 438 respondents, most of the audience (29%) was from the A public and aged 41 to 50 (23%). The executive also highlights the presence of children at the exhibition. “We had 15,000 schoolchildren. You can’t get an audience like that to see paintings in a museum.”

The exhibition was also a success for the Morumbi Mall: sales went up around 8%, and consumption in restaurants 25%. “It was profitable; the result is wonderful,” says Reisman, who contests the criticism that there is too much emphasis on the commercial side of the show.

As in the case of Portinari, the space dedicated to selling souvenirs is very generous. In the case of Van Gogh, who died unknown, was poor, and sold only one painting in his lifetime, besides his mental disorders and controversial suicide, the contrast is even greater.

“We employ more than 300 people; there are about 400 people involved in the production. The money circulates and allows us to do other exhibitions. This project has to be applauded,” he says.

The investment in the exhibition was around R$18 million, and the executive says that the criticism that an “immersive” show is cheaper than a “real” one due to high insurance costs is also unfounded.

“An exhibition with a Van Gogh painting would cost around R$8 million,” he says. The most expensive work by the artist sold at auction in 1990 was “Portrait of Dr. Paul Gachet” for US$83 million.

Portinari for Everyone – MIS Experience
Address: Rua Cenno Sbrighi, 250, Água Branca, São Paulo
Tickets: from R$30 to R$45; free on Tuesdays.
Until July 31

Van Gogh Live – 8k
Address: BarraShopping Mall, Rio de Janeiro
Tickets: from R$70 to R$ 100; from July 28 to November 2

With information from Valor Econômico