What was once just a dream for many art fans is now possible at a new Vincent van Gogh exhibition in Munich.
An immersive tour guides visitors through the works of the Dutch painter, focusing on his final years. The exhibition opens on October 15th at the Utopia venue. t-online was on site the day before for a first look.
“Diving in instead of just looking” could be its motto. The space is transformed into a kind of walk-in canvas: with 360-degree projections, a musical soundtrack, and the 3D mapping projections typical for this kind of exhibition, you can admire van Gogh’s works from all sides and even become part of them.
What makes “Vincent – Between Madness and Miracle” special is not just the walkable, visually powerful, and musically accompanied format. It’s primarily the perspective from which the story is told: that of Johanna van Gogh, known as Jo.
Johanna was the wife of Theo van Gogh, the painter’s younger brother. After the brothers’ early deaths, she managed the extensive estate, collected Vincent van Gogh’s works, and meticulously curated the correspondence between her husband and her brother-in-law—all as a widowed mother who was not necessarily well-off.
Using her brother-in-law’s collected works, Johanna van Gogh organized regular exhibitions in Amsterdam. Her work laid the foundation for the painter’s later fame—and yet her name often goes unmentioned.
Visitors don’t just read about this; they hear it too: each visitor receives an audio guide with headphones. This audio guide automatically narrates an episode from Vincent van Gogh’s life based on the listener’s position in the exhibition. This technical trick creates the impression that Johanna is in the room, telling you, for example, about the “pact” her husband Theo and Vincent made to finance the latter’s artistic work.
Johanna’s gentle voice guides visitors through van Gogh’s development. She tells of his beginnings in the art trade in London and his progress as a painter, with a focus on his final years.
The tour also addresses his health problems. The infamous episode of madness in which he cut off part of his ear is only mentioned in passing. Instead, visitors learn from the numerous information panels what truly afflicted the tormented artist: frontal lobe epilepsy. Symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, and depressive phases. This condition plagued the painter for years but also shaped his artistic creation.
Undoubtedly, the immersive show at the end is the centerpiece of the exhibition: for 20 minutes, visitors are presented with the life of Vincent van Gogh while relaxing on comfortable beanbags in a cinema-like atmosphere. The show begins with the legendary sunflowers—largely ignored in his time—and shows how, nearly 100 years later, they were auctioned at Christie’s for 20 million pounds.
The paintings flow across the entire room like on a screen, while individual elements move: petals, brushstrokes, stars in the sky. It looks as if the images are being painted by a ghostly hand, all set to gentle, classical music.
The show consistently delivers on this “immersive” impression and finally, with a resounding violin crescendo, lets colors and images literally collapse: a wave of criticism and hostility—which the painter also faced during his lifetime—rains down on the viewers. This segment dramatically illustrates the inner and outer demons the painter battled, which ultimately brought him to his knees: in 1890, Vincent van Gogh died by suicide in his brother’s arms.
The Utopia venue is already well-known for immersive art exhibitions that straddle the line between a visual feast and entertainment. The creators of Utopia have already demonstrated their skill with exhibitions on Tutankhamun and Monet; Frida Kahlo is set to follow in December.
To manage expectations: this exhibition does not display original artworks, only replicas. Admission at €24 is nevertheless not exactly cheap, though there are discounts for families. The organizer promises an “experience” on its website, and that is precisely what visitors get. If you want to experience the petals from van Gogh’s sunflowers detaching from the bouquet and dancing dreamily across the walls and floor, this is the place for you.
However, if you want to understand van Gogh’s unique color technique and his significance as an artist, you might be better off viewing an original at the Neue Pinakothek museum, where admission costs just €1 on Sundays.
The exhibition “Vincent – Between Madness and Miracle” runs from October 15, 2025, to January 11, 2026, at Utopia.
Opening Hours: Daily from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
Tickets are available online via Feverup. Price overview:
Regular Admission: €24
Children & Youth (6-15 years): €19 | Children under 6: Free
Students (up to 28 years) & Seniors (67+ years): €19
Family Package (2 adults + 2 children): €14.75 per person
Group Ticket (min. 5 people): €21 per person
School Groups (min. 10 people): €9 per person
Getting There: Utopia is located at Heßstraße 132, 80797 Munich. Visitors can reach it via:
Bus lines 53 and 59 (stop: Infanteriestraße)
Bus lines 154 (stop: Winzererstraße) or 153 (stop: Hochschule München)
Tram lines 12, 19, 20, 21 (stops: Hochschule München/Lothstraße or Leonrodplatz)
A short walk from any of these stops via Infanteriestraße leads to the venue.
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