On June 5, 2016 we celebrated Fête des
Voisins (The Neighbour’s Party) visiting Maison
Van Gogh in neighbouring area of Cuesmes located only 3 km away.
During 11 am – 12.30 pm there’s a
free visit and music performance by Bastien Loriou
with his barrel organ.
It’s our second visit to the house that Van Gogh
lived from 1879 to 1880, the first time after several renovations (having been
abandoned for nearly a century, The Van Gogh House almost disappeared due to
the poor condition).
Today we have the chance to have a look inside
and see the new layout.
It begins with an
introduction at the entrance of the garden. There’s also a new building allows
us to discover the context of Van Gogh’s arrival in the region and gives us an
overview of this “pays noir” (black country) called the Borinage. In this
little house, it’s completely redesigned. One media room plays the film narrating
the life of Van Gogh and his move to Borinage. The other contains replica works, period documents and letters, with multilingual interactive
screen. That’s it!
It’s a way shorter visit
compared to the Van Gogh exhibition at BAM last year. But this
venue was a major milestone. It was here, in this modest home, Van Gogh, one of the greatest painters from the 19th century took the first steps in his artistic career.