Van Gogh’s Palette
A musical journey into the world of Henry Darger
A multisensory universe
Vincent van Gogh spends the final two months of his life in Auvers- sur-Oise, where Doctor Gachet lives, a friend of the Impressionists, a collector and an amateur painter. On 27 June 1890, the doctor lends Van Gogh a palette so that the artist could finish the portrait of his daughter Marguerite.
This historic palette is now part of the Musée d’Orsay’s collection Serving as an imaginary virtual landscape, Van Gogh’s Palette offers visitors a uniquely interactive and sensory experience of works painted by Van Gogh during this crucial period of his career.
The palette: In order to recreate Van Gogh’s palette in 3D, photogrammetry software was used to find the painting’s materiality, sculpted by brushstrokes, along with all the tiny variations of color.
The guide: in this particular universe, the guide is Van Gogh’s The Kingfisher, a painting that now hangs in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. On each occasion, its flight indicates the area of the palette into which the user is teleported and the objects with which they are invited to interact.
Interacting with matter: interactions made possible throughout the experience enable the user to manipulate Van Gogh’s pictorial matter in order to understand his way of working. Their whole body is engaged in this confrontation with the painting. Three types of interactions have been developed: distortion, colors and brushstrokes.
The music: the piano notes are from Liszt’s transcriptions of operas by Wagner, whom Vincent van Gogh greatly admired. The melodies have been reworked, either slowing them down or speeding them up, so as to suggest the disorientation and suspended time during which the artist painted his works.
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis.”
– Quotee, Quoted
Three Direct Questions
Philippe Cohen Solal, Director
Philippe Cohen Solal, a French musician, composer, and producer, is a founding member of Gotan Project.
An eclectic artist and technology enthusiast, he drew inspiration from the works of Henry Darger, a major figure in Art Brut, to create his transmedia project INSIDER-OUTSIDER, which combines live performance, music, and immersive experiences.
What drew you to Darger's work?
I discovered Henry Darger and Art Brut at the American Folk Art Museum in New York in 2003 during a U.S. tour with Gotan Project. By chance, I also met his heirs. Darger’s work, primarily analog, is made up of collages, drawings, and texts. This self-taught artist, who operated outside modern art conventions (“outsider”), was a genius in both drawing and literature, creating throughout his life without ever showing his work.
Darger embodies pure creativity and is the definition of Art Brut. There’s no intention of external validation; he creates primarily for himself.His world fascinated me, with its depiction of a rich, imaginary battle between the realms of children and adults. But, to me, it called for a complementary musical and auditory dimension.
What started this transmedia project?
Initially, my collaborator Mike Lindsay and I composed music based on Darger’s song lyrics, while showcasing a handcrafted panorama of his drawings and paintings. We aimed to showcase the breadth of his work through digital means. It’s a vintage universe that evokes a form of pop culture from the 1930s to the 1960s, largely inspired by his 15,000-page collection “In the Realms of the Unreal”.
Our album was ready by the end of 2019, but, of course, COVID-19 delayed any touring possibilities. The pandemic also gave us time to consider other ways to bring OUTSIDER to the public when concerts were so limited. I decided to use 2D animation to create more polished visuals, which led me to videographer Pascal Gary (aka formazero). Together, we collaborated with the Rainbox collective, particularly Gabriel Jacquel, to develop the project’s visual concept. We ended up with short, highly narrative visual clips to accompany our music compositions, which allowed us to delve deeper into the material created by Darger.
Finally, we were able to present the full project at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris in 2021 as a performance blending DJ and VJ elements, with visuals, sound, and narration featuring actor Denis Lavant. Once the pandemic was over, I explored virtual reality to further expand OUTSIDER, inspired by immersive experiences like Blanca Li’s *Le Bal de Paris*. Exploring worlds that don’t exist fascinated me, and I was eager to return to this medium. VR offers an amazing opportunity for a suspended experience where one can explore benevolent, dreamlike worlds.
How did you approach the VR medium?
I’ve always had an organic approach to my creations, which gives me a way of moving forward that’s almost indestructible. My artistic practice is open and unrestricted. With Gotan Project, we already mixed sound and visuals, constantly seeking new challenges. The pandemic pushed us to find new ways to share our music, reimagine concerts, and communicate our work.
Transmedia and VR are part of this movement, and I came to them naturally in search of new ways to share my stories with the public. I also wanted to offer something handmade and accessible, avoiding a futuristic vision of VR limited to a few enthusiasts. INSIDER-OUTSIDER is the culmination of OUTSIDER, bringing the audience closer to what we want to offer.
Thanks to a collaboration with Lucid Realities (Chloé Jarry, Alessandra Bogi), the idea of a VR version of OUTSIDER took shape. We share a passion for contemporary art and the habit of integrating various artistic practices. I also came with a wealth of existing content: the story, images, music. The challenge was to transpose it all into virtual reality while incorporating music as an interactive element, exploring how musical interactions could function within a narrative space.
The idea was to bring all our work on OUTSIDER into the VR medium, which ties seamlessly into Darger’s imaginary-focused work. For him, the real world wasn’t suitable; he led a difficult life, with little social satisfaction. All this inspired me to create an immersive version of OUTSIDER, INSIDER-OUTSIDER, as a way to expand upon Darger’s world. It’s like creating a piece of music inspired by something you’ve just seen or read—the blend of genres is always enriching for me.
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