An exhilarating immersive experience at the Atelier des Lumières

The Atelier des Lumières was one of the first places to offer immersive experiences, which are now a quite standard feature at many museums and generally to immerse visitors into outstanding scenery, such as the Peruvian Machu Picchu (Musée du Quai Branly) or ancient buildings like a pyramid (Institut du Monde Arabe)
However, the experiences at the Atelier des Lumières are different as they take visitors inside the artist’s works making them feel like they are part of the actual paintings. How is this possible, you wonder? Instead of seeing a painted work designed by the artist, visitors can enjoy an enlarged and mobile global vision and immediately see brush strokes and colour nuances much more clearly. Analysis and Art history fly out the window as visitors are engulfed in the flow of colourful images and sounds, soaking up a universe of pure sensation.

There are two shows currently on offer this summer, Cézanne – Kandkinsky and Van Gogh - Yves Klein. We recommend starting with the former (programmed more often), with Cézanne’s Provence light emphasising how close the artist was to nature and facetted volumes filling the hall in fits and starts. Visitors walk under the massive canopies of trees and forests, gardens where bathers rest, see the geometric roofs of small villages in the distance and come close to the legendary Saint-Victoire Mountain he loved so much.  

Next Russian Kandinsky introduces the abstract, removing the narrative from the painting’s contents. See his early figurative works in which colour was used in a particular way, resulting in a unique intensity. Followed by paintings inspired by music and guided by the desire to free himself from simple representation. Yellow, red, blue (1925) and his other Compositions reveal this powerful jump towards modernity with geometric and later biomorphic shapes placed in no specific order on colourful backgrounds. Leave the real world behind to let the mind enjoy this sensorial and even spiritual experience from within.  

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OUR HOTEL NEAR THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: