As host of Van Gogh Alive, Amanda Muggleton has experienced the art installation countless times. And yet, every time she walks into the SENSORY4 gallery, she is still overcome with emotion.
It's something she says Canberrans will also experience when the immersive art experience opens to the public on Saturday.
The custom portable pavilion - the largest in the world - has found a home on Parkes Place Lawns for the next five weeks, bringing with it a multi-sensory experience that will see people immerse themselves inside Van Gogh's paintings.
Bookended by rooms inspired by the artist's famous paintings, The Starry Night and Sunflowers, is the main attraction, in the SENSORY4 gallery, or what is colloquially known as "the big room". In there a 40-minute video loop of Van Gogh's artworks is projected using up to 40 high-definition projectors and accompanied by music and even a custom scent designed to transport you to France.
"When you get into the main exhibition, it is mind-blowing," Ms Muggleton said.
"You are not in an exhibition, where the paintings are tiny, and you have to wait for someone to clear before you can bend down to read small writing in the description. The bliss of this exhibition is that all his paintings are 11 metres tall and you can see his every brushstroke, his every thought.
"The people who have put this together have created magic and by adding music and scent to the projections they've created a mood. All your senses are going at the same time."
By taking the artworks out of the formal setting of a gallery, the experience aims to give people a new understanding of the artist - whether that is through discovering new details in the artwork or experiencing some of Van Gogh's works for the first time.
People are encouraged to get up close and even touch or step on the floor projections - something which is unimaginable when dealing with the originals.
"We are a family-friendly exhibition, so please bring your children. We want to introduce children to art, and because children are so free spiritually, they dance and they throw themselves all over the floor, which in here is all Van Gogh paintings," Ms Muggleton said.
"Some people have got annoyed that the children aren't behaving themselves, but we don't want them to. We want them to get their artistic juices going. And this exhibition isn't only for children, but it's very appealing to people who've never been to an art gallery in their life. People that only think he did sunflowers and a chair will be very shocked because the flowers that this man painted are endless. And no one has done as many self-portraits as Van Gogh did.
"Of course, the reason there are so many portraits of him is that he couldn't afford to get models to sit for him. And that's why when you when he went to the cafe terrace, it was wonderful because he paints all those wonderful characters that are in the cafe terrace - the captain and the women."
Van Gogh Alive is at Parkes Place Lawns from March 5. For tickets go to vangoghalive.com.au.
