'Monet's Garden' Immersive Exhibit in NYC Makes Artwork 'Come Alive'

It is easy to imagine the settings in which Claude Monet, the revolutionary French impressionist painter, created: idyllic gardens, serene sunsets by the bay, and iconic landscapes that often feel so tranquil, you could walk right through them.

And starting on Friday in New York City's financial district, you can.

Art cognoscentes and lovers of aesthetics will have the opportunity to visit an immersive experience titled Monet's Garden, a multimedia exhibit that allows guests to interact with Monet's masterpieces in a way that has never been done before.

Dr. Nepomuk Schessl, producer of Monet's Garden, told Newsweek that the inspiration for this exhibition—which was created by Swiss creative lab Immersive Art AG in collaboration with Alegria Konzert GmbH—was the artist himself.

"We felt that his art is made to be immersive," Schessl said. "Monet himself basically already painted his pictures wanting to immerse the spectator. He painted his waterlilies in such a large format, they were 20 meters big, some of them, because he wanted that person looking at this picture to feel like they are standing in the water lilies."

"We are not really doing something that the artist hadn't thought of or didn't have as an idea already," Schessl added.

Using not only sight, but sound and smell as well, the artistic perspectives of Monet are brought to life in a way that is not only ornamental, but educational as well, and Schessl reassured that the exhibit is designed so that one does not have to be an art connoisseur to enjoy the experience.

"You don't need to know anything when you come to us," Schessl said. "Whether you're an expert or you are just fascinated by the pictures you saw on Instagram, we will take you and we will guide you through the whole experience."

The exhibit includes several rooms where guests can learn about Monet's life and his artistic process, including his painting style, which has been deemed "revolutionary" by many; rather than mix his colors on the palette before he touched the canvas, Monet placed colors next to each other without mixing them, one aspect of his work which is highlighted using technological projections in the exhibit.

From there, guests are brought to the garden, an indoor landscape based on Monet's paintings of garden landscapes in Giverny, France. Schessl said that despite the garden being an installation, it will smell and look like a real garden, and though the exhibit takes place in winter in New York, visitors can "have a little bit of a light and garden summer feeling and immerse yourself in his world for the first time there."

The garden, Schessl said, was the catalyst for the entire project. "It started with the title Monet's Garden, because we felt this is so inspiring, and it's giving so much fantasy to what you want to see there as well. And this was really guiding us through the whole production process."

There are also interactive projections, where Monet's paintings can come to life and move with the people that stand in front of them. "When you interact and touch each other in front of that camera, the whole projection will explode and come alive, because basically it's the human interaction that brings the whole art to life," Schessl said.

As far as using technology for art exhibits such as this one, Schessl added that using technology to bring classic art to life is "a new genre."

"We take this narrative approach throughout the show, where there is someone telling you the story, not constantly but you know, taking you on this journey so you don't have to bring the knowledge, and you're still taking away knowledge and experience rather than just having seen pretty pictures," he explained.

And when asked what he thought Monet would say if he had the chance to see and experience his own artwork in such a real way, Schessl said that the artist never commented much on his own work, but "I think he would have done it because he wanted to immerse us already. And I think if he would have had a projector room like this, he would have probably not been painting, but he probably would have done this."

The exhibition, being showcased at Seamen's Bank Building at 30 Wall Street in New York City, will officially open on November 4 and will be available through January 8, 2023. A U.S. national tour for the exhibit will be planned for 2023.