Immersive Art - The Future or Yet Another Fad?

We talk to India's most popular contemporary artist Santanu Hazarika and one world's most influential personalities in the field of art, the co-founder of Kochi Biennale Foundation Bose Krishnamachari to understand the swift rise of immersive arts in India

- Ravi Raj

The bandwagon of immersive art experiences that sprang up to life last year is showing no signs of slowing. The Real Van Gogh immersive exhibit, after supposedly mesmerising viewers across cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, and New Delhi last year, came to Chennai and Hyderabad this year. The footfalls didn't disappoint, as people thronged in masses to drown in the world of Van Gogh-a Dutch artist who is undergoing a moment of a grand internetfuelled reawakening, more than a century after his death. These installations submerge the visitors in the world of a painter and his wide arrays of work, a spectacle so stimulating to our senses that it crushes the distance and aura that marked the traditional way of engaging with art. Explaining the allure behind immersive exhibitions, Santanu Hazarika, one of the most popular contemporary artists, highlights how memory is retained more efficiently because one interacts with all the senses. "Art has always been subjective to our senses," says Hazarika. "Be it painting, music, or sculpture, the traditional form of engagement was pretty one-dimensional, but now with the advancement of technology, we can combine all the sensory feelings to sort of intensify how we observe and absorb art," he adds.