The Yellow of Arles in the Golden Horn: Van Gogh In the Footsteps of Light
The exhibition that brings the yellow of Arles to Istanbul also brings Van Gogh’s hope to today’s audience. Van Gogh In the Footsteps of Light is now open at the Digital Experience Museum.
It feels as if the sun itself has lent Arles’ golden glow to Istanbul. Approaching the Digital Experience Center (DDM) in Sütlüce—right beside Miniatürk and run by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Culture Inc.—the Bosphorus breeze grazes your face. Walking along the Golden Horn, beneath the same golden sun that once illuminated Sadabad, you find yourself entering a time tunnel. From the late 1800s, the path seems to carry you all the way into the 2100s.
Van Gogh: In the Footsteps of Light reimagines the artist’s journey from darkness to radiance through today’s digital technology. Not merely to remind us that Van Gogh was ahead of his time, but more importantly, to remind us of the light we each carry within.
Imagine a universe spilling over from its frame… You step into the palette, blend the colors with your own hands, and experience The Starry Night not as if gazing at it from a window, but as if drifting through it. You then step into another realm, witnessing the rebirth of familiar images through algorithms. The light Van Gogh sought all his life becomes the very space you inhabit; hope is no longer a theme, but a presence.
In this article, we will follow that path of light: beginning in the Digital Room, moving into Van Gogh’s Palette, diving into the artist’s subconscious, and finally arriving at the imagination of artificial intelligence. What lies at the end of this journey? That is for you to discover.
But before setting off, let us share our conversation with Osman Cenk Akın, General Manager of Kültür AŞ.
The Vision Behind the Light
Osman Cenk Akın, General Manager of İBB Kültür AŞ, tells us that he was struck more by the broken rhythm of Van Gogh’s life than by his paintings. “He lived only 37 years,” says Akın. “In that short time, he fled the dark skies of the north for the light of southern France. There, he experienced friendships, disappointments, and crises, yet remained incredibly productive. It’s as if he was creating something new every single day. To me, that is what makes Van Gogh extraordinary: an unsolvable mystery, coupled with his ability to transform exhaustion into creation.”
Akın explains that the curatorial approach of the exhibition was shaped by this very spirit. He points out that the VR experience prepared for the Musée d’Orsay has come to Istanbul for the first time, while the Nohlab work exhibited in Dublin has been reinterpreted here.
“You can’t keep art confined to one place,” he says. “When the right conditions come together, great works become part of a city’s breath. The fact that this center is located on the shores of the Golden Horn is no coincidence—it is a meeting point where the veins of old Istanbul intertwine with today’s movements.”
Emphasizing that Istanbul is a multi-centered city, Akın cites the increasing vibrancy from the Fener–Balat line to Eminönü as an example. “For us, the aim is to connect the city’s memory with contemporary production,” he adds.
Akın also shares his personal favorite moment in the exhibition: the VR room.
“You stand, turn 360 degrees, and as you reach out your hand, the colors react. What you see in the other rooms transforms into a breathable atmosphere here. The viewer shifts from passive observer to an active participant in the scene,” he says.
“You can’t keep art in one place. When the right conditions are met, great works become part of the city’s breath.”
Looking ahead, Akın hints that the Digital Experience Center’s projects will not be limited to painting, but will expand into other disciplines, including literature.
“We want to design projects that touch upon different eras. We will bring childhood stories into physical space, intertwining past, present, and future. That’s why this exhibition is not a closing, but an opening parenthesis.”
He circles back to Van Gogh as he concludes:
“You may be weary of life, but you channel that weariness into your work—that is the essence. Our role is to open that door for the visitor.”
With that guiding vision in mind, let us step into the exhibition’s layered rooms, tracing the luminous footsteps of Van Gogh.
Digital Room: Touching Van Gogh’s Life
Özde Karadağ (Exhibition Content Director): “In these days when the world is being pulled into chaos, I feel that people are exhausted, their belief in the future fading. That is precisely why I shaped the exhibition’s title and experience around the period when Van Gogh, during his darkest years, went to Arles in search of light. This exhibition tells today’s visitors: ‘Do not tire of seeking the light that will guide you.’”
The In Search of Light journey begins with the Digital Room, an interactive introduction that traces Van Gogh’s story from childhood to his final letters, highlighting the inspirations behind his masterpieces. This section feels like a gentle warm-up: excerpts from his letters, early sketches, and the stories behind his paintings unfold in chronological order on digital screens. By sliding a movable screen along a rail and stopping beside the painting of your choice, you can instantly access detailed insights about that work. Touch the glowing yellow dots on the wall and suddenly the stars in The Starry Night transform into shooting stars.
Here, the invitation is clear: to remember Van Gogh first and foremost as a human being. A man whose life was defined by struggle—perhaps most of all with himself. One detail stands out: during his time in Borinage, Belgium, Van Gogh lived among miners, sharing their harsh conditions. While working as a preacher, he refused to place himself above the workers, showing extraordinary empathy and dedication. Ironically, this very humility led to his dismissal. Was this the turning point that pushed him fully toward painting? We cannot know for sure. (In truth, perhaps painting was always at the core, with everything else orbiting around it.)
What we do know is that Borinage sharpened his sensitivity to themes of labor and poverty. Karadağ emphasizes that she finds it “unique and moving” that Van Gogh, though born into a wealthy family, chose to immerse himself in the world of workers. Indeed, isn’t The Potato Eaters, with its intimate portrayal of peasant life in Nuenen, one of the most poignant reflections of this empathy?
Despite the limited preparation time, Karadağ and her team structured the exhibition around light and hope, focusing especially on Van Gogh’s Arles period—the moment when he was most fervently searching for light. “The Digital Room lays the foundation for the more abstract experiences of the later rooms,” she explains. “Our starting point was not simply to look at Van Gogh’s works, but to interact with them. In this space, visitors enter an active learning process through small games and puzzles.”
For example, piecing together Sunflowers in a digital puzzle allows you to experience the satisfaction of “building the big picture with small touches.” Leaving this room, we move into the next stage of the exhibition.
A message from Özde Karadağ to the young Van Gogh: “Only let people into your life who truly understand you—like your brother Theo.”
Virtual Reality: Van Gogh’s Palette
Virgile Mangiavillano (Co-Founder and Operations Director of VR Future): “Light was always Van Gogh’s passion. I grew up near Saint-Rémy; I often visited the mental hospital where he once stayed. The Starry Night, painted in May 1889, is both what he saw from his window and what he imagined. The fact that it was created during a period of crisis shows us that hope is possible even in the midst of pain. That single work alone embodies both hope and light.”
In the Virtual Reality Room, the experience titled Van Gogh’s Palette focuses on the artist’s final months in Auvers-sur-Oise. It invites visitors to explore an imaginary world built around his palette. Once the VR headset is on, you find yourself in Dr. Gachet’s home in June 1890: Marguerite Gachet’s portrait rests on an easel, Van Gogh’s borrowed palette lies waiting on the table. Suddenly, the palette dissolves into an expansive landscape. Guided by Marguerite, you travel through fields of color, stepping inside the worlds of Van Gogh’s final works.
This is a multisensory encounter, engaging sight, touch, movement, and sound. Mangiavillano explains that for this project, developed for the Musée d’Orsay, they scanned Van Gogh’s final palette in ultra-high resolution, capturing every carved stroke and the subtlest color nuance before translating it into a digital environment. “We placed the visitor’s hands at the very center,” he says. “As they interact with the colors, they sometimes find their hands covered in paint. In this way, the tangible texture of the palette and Van Gogh’s relentless passion for color and light become something you can physically feel.”
This immersive journey lasts around ten minutes and is being presented in Turkey for the first time at Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Digital Experience Center.
A message from Virgile Mangiavillano to the young Van Gogh: “First: with passion and perseverance, anything is possible. Second: never let yourself be trapped by fixed ideas. And finally, I’ll borrow your own words: ‘I know nothing for certain, but looking at the stars makes me dream.’”
Immersive Experience: In Pursuit of Light
Nohlab Studio: “What impressed us most about Van Gogh was his ability to convey reality not as it simply ‘appeared,’ but as he felt it—transforming brushstrokes into tactile, kinetic sensations and using light not merely as brightness, but as a material that shapes perception itself. This approach, which transforms a two-dimensional surface into an experiential realm, resonates deeply with our studio’s own language, which is built on the search for essence.”
After VR, we enter the Immersive Experience Room, the very heart of the exhibition. In this high-ceilinged, expansive space, the walls and floors dissolve into Van Gogh’s universe. Dim light greets us as we step inside, as though entering the artist’s subconscious. Nohlab’s futuristic narrative unfolds across 14 minutes, structured in four evocative acts.
The first scene plunges us into dreams and nightmares, followed by the earth tones and peasant figures of Van Gogh’s Paris and Nuenen years. Then, suddenly, the atmosphere warms—we move south, under the blazing Arles sun. Sunflowersbloom across the walls; we follow the golden glow through fields and gardens, wrapped in the richest shades of yellow.
A pause of silence. The colors dim. The cold, confining walls of the Saint-Rémy asylum close in around us. Shimmering blue and violet hues ripple across the surfaces, mirroring the turbulence of the artist’s mind. Then a window appears: the view from Van Gogh’s own room. Beyond it, The Starry Night awakens. Golden spirals slowly unfurl across the deep blue sky. To know that this masterpiece was born in crisis (1889) is to witness how “hope can take root even in the midst of pain.” Indeed, science has since shown that The Starry Night is not only emotionally stirring, but also a marvel of physics. In Nohlab’s vision, sensation, rhythm, and flow themselves are transformed into a visual language.
As the crescendo builds, the images fragment—stars and sunflowers break apart into digital particles, spinning in a vortex at the center of the room. We are swept from this layer into another dimension.
Augmented Reality: The Infinite Van Gogh Universe
The journey continues in the Augmented Reality Room, where the finale unfolds. Here, specially developed software scans and categorizes more than 2,000 of Van Gogh’s works. Using advanced machine learning, it generates new images—dreams of artificial intelligence that flicker across vast screens. Landscapes and portraits emerge and dissolve in Van Gogh’s unmistakable style, yet they are works he never painted.
Inside this art capsule, the boundaries of reality blur. A familiar brushstroke appears, only to melt into a field, which then transforms into a star. Nohlab Studio describes the project as “expanding Van Gogh’s vision through the computational language of our time.” These are not authentic Van Gogh paintings, but reinterpretations—new possibilities imagined within his visual universe. After about four minutes, the images dissolve back into pure light. We awaken from AI’s Van Gogh dream.
Just as we prepare to return to reality, a cinema screen appears. The journey is not quite over.
A message from Nohlab Studio to the young Van Gogh: “In the future, your works will not remain bound to canvas. They will transform into three-dimensional, multi-sensory experiences that unfold across entire spaces. Your paintings will become living landscapes—woven with sound, movement, and light—creating immersive narratives that people can step inside.”
Digital Corridor: A Luminous Farewell
Fuat Genç (Media Artist): “Van Gogh once said, ‘What a great mistake it is for a person not to feel small, not to realize they are a speck.’ Those words still resonate. I think this is the problem for many of us—we try to feel large by forgetting that we are, in fact, only specks.”
The final step of the exhibition is the Digital Corridor. Here, in media artist Fuat Genç’s installation Cinematic Dreams, we see Van Gogh’s universe from inside an AI-powered film studio. Genç explains that his intention was to show not only the polished outcome, but also the “behind the scenes” of digital creation. On the screen, Van Gogh appears and reappears at different ages and in different places, while the algorithm’s “thought process” unfolds before our eyes.
Along one wall, a map of the Golden Horn is reinterpreted through Van Gogh’s gaze: a playful question lingers—if he had visited Istanbul, what would he have painted most? On another wall, the interactive piece Step by Step Light responds to the movements of visitors, while the digital painting area invites you to create your own “Van Gogh” simply by moving your fingers across the screen. Children (and those who still cherish their inner child) delight in a small slide inspired by The Starry Night, a playful nod that adds both laughter and wonder to the farewell.
Reflecting on his personal connection, Genç shares: “I have always loved the painting Sorrowing Old Man, created near the end of Van Gogh’s life, when his mental struggles were at their most severe. It moves me deeply that the man who gave the world so much color and joy carried within him such sorrow.”
As the experience draws to a close, Van Gogh’s words to his brother Theo linger in the air:
“I know nothing for certain, but looking at the stars makes me dream.”
The Van Gogh: In the Footsteps of Light exhibition can be visited daily, except on Mondays, at the Digital Experience Center, where it will remain open until February 2026.
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