Beyond the familiar paintings and digital projections, Kraków offers visitors a chance to step into the physical world that surrounded Vincent van Gogh.
Vincent van Gogh remains one of the most recognisable artists in modern history. His vivid colours, energetic brushwork and deeply personal paintings have become part of global culture, while the circumstances of his life have contributed to the enduring fascination surrounding his work.
Born in the Netherlands in 1853, Van Gogh spent much of his artistic life in France, producing more than 2,000 artworks during roughly a decade of intense creative activity. His use of thick layers of paint, known as impasto, gave his work a physical quality that is difficult to appreciate fully through a screen.
That physicality is central to Van Gogh & Vincent, a permanent immersive exhibition at Bracka 13 in Kraków. Rather than relying primarily on large-scale projections, the exhibition reconstructs the environments in which Van Gogh lived and worked, creating an experience based on rooms, objects and material details.
The exhibition describes itself as the world's only permanent immersive exhibition recreating the life of Vincent van Gogh. Its approach reflects a wider question surrounding immersive art: how can technology and reconstruction help audiences understand an artist rather than simply place their paintings on a larger screen?
From Digital Images to a Physical World
Van Gogh's paintings are often reproduced in spectacular digital exhibitions, where animated projections fill entire rooms with colour and movement. While such presentations can offer a striking introduction to his work, they can also separate the paintings from the circumstances in which they were created.
Van Gogh & Vincent take a different route.
The exhibition physically recreates the 32 rooms in which Van Gogh lived and worked. These spaces provide a more tangible sense of the environments surrounding the artist, including the limited and often difficult conditions of his life.
The emphasis on physicality also extends to his paintings. Three-dimensional printed reproductions of paint textures allow visitors to examine the depth associated with Van Gogh's impasto technique.
That detail matters because the physical surface of his paintings is part of their visual language. Thick brushstrokes do not simply add texture. They contribute to the movement, intensity and character of the finished work.
The Research Behind the Reconstruction
The historical foundation of the Kraków exhibition comes from Dr Wouter van der Veen, a Dutch-born scholar whose career has focused extensively on Van Gogh.
Born in Doorwerth in the Netherlands in 1974, van der Veen moved with his family to France when he was ten. His life between the two countries gave him a perspective particularly relevant to the study of Van Gogh, a Dutch artist whose career developed largely in France.
After studying Literature, van der Veen worked at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, where he transcribed 350 of Vincent's letters written in French during the final four years of his life.
His academic work continued with a doctorate from Utrecht University in 2007. His thesis, Van Gogh, homme de Lettres, examined the literary sources that influenced Van Gogh's thinking and painting. He later lectured at the University of Strasbourg and established Éditions Arthénon, a publishing house focused on making Van Gogh scholarship accessible.
One of his most significant discoveries came in 2020.
By comparing a historical postcard with the composition of Van Gogh's Tree Roots, van der Veen identified the location depicted in the painting as a hillside on Rue Daubigny in Auvers-sur-Oise. The painting was created during Van Gogh's final hours on 27 July 1890. The discovery was subsequently confirmed by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
Bringing Scholarship Into the Exhibition
For Van Gogh & Vincent in Kraków, van der Veen has taken his research beyond books and academic investigation.
He has designed every room, selected the objects presented within the exhibition and written its exhibition texts. The result is intended to connect Van Gogh's paintings with the physical environments, personal circumstances and historical details surrounding them.
That makes the Kraków experience less about reproducing the appearance of Van Gogh's paintings and more about reconstructing the world from which they emerged.
For visitors familiar with The Starry Night, Sunflowers or the story of Van Gogh's final years, the exhibition offers another way into that history. Instead of encountering the artist only through famous images, audiences are invited to consider the rooms, objects, textures and places behind them.
In Kraków, immersion therefore begins with something considerably more tangible than a projection: the attempt to rebuild the world in which Vincent van Gogh lived and created.
Visitor Information
Exhibition: Van Gogh & Vincent
Location: Bracka 13, Kraków
Opening: Daily, 11:00–19:00
