To commemorate the 125th anniversary of Vincent van Gogh’s death, fellow Dutch artist and designer Daan Roosegaarde has created an illuminated cycle path inspired by the artist’s iconic painting The Starry Night (1889), the Daily Mail reports.
The kilometer-long installation—located in the Dutch province of North Brabant, where van Gogh’s was born—features 50,000 solar-powered stones, embedded in the ground. After soaking up sunlight during the day, the rocks shine at night, resulting in breathtaking swirls of glowing patterns.
The sunless Dutch winter is not an issue for Roosegaarde. Along the solar-powered stone, the artist has embedded LED lights in the path, which will enhance visibility on cloudy days, when the stones may not be able to charge.
“I wanted to create a place that people will experience in a special way, the technical combined with experience, that’s what techno-poetry means to me,” Roosegaarde said in a statement.
Roosegaarde’s installation received an investment of $875,000 by the local and provincial governments, reported the Washington Post. It is part of the Van Gogh Cycle Route, which connects several Van Gogh heritage sites across 335 kilometres.
The path is also one of the first offerings of Van Gogh 2015, a year-long program of cultural events across the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, that will commemorate the 125th anniversary of the death of the well-loved painter.
The celebrations, however, come at a fraught moment. Van Gogh’s untimely death at the age of 37 has been mythologized as a suicide. Yet recent research suggests that he didn’t kill himself, but that was shot and killed by accident, a controversial theory that has been gaining momentum in recent months (see “Was van Gogh Killed? New Research Says He Was Shot”).