It’s often said that art imitates nature, but in the case of a Vincent van Gogh enthusiast in Bosnia, nature has been corralled to imitate art.
When Halim Zukic bought a plot of land two decades ago outside Visoko, a town in the southeastern European country, he was unsure what to do with it. In 2018, however, he was standing on a hill admiring the view when he noticed that the circular tractor marks carved into a hay meadow mimicked the swirls of Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night (1889).
A vision was born: to recreate the famous painting in three dimensions and build a park for visitors. Six years on, Zukic has succeeded in turning his 10-hectare plot of land into an homage to the Dutchman’s work. To do so, Zukic acquired more land and began sculpting it. He planted trees, turned streams into lakes, and brought in lavender (in six different shades), as well as herbs such as sage, wormwood, and chamomile, which were formed into colorful swirls and spirals.
Halim Zukic, a Bosnian businessman, sits in front of his version of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night. Photo: Samir Jordamovic/ Anadolu via Getty Images.
“Vincent van Gogh belongs to us too. It’s our heritage and this is a way of paying tribute to him,” Zukic told AFP. “Inspired by the painting, we tried to stick to the shapes and proportions, so that it looks like the painting as much as possible and I think we succeeded.”
The 56-year-old, formerly in the insurance business, embarked on the project along with a team of 20 to 30 gardeners. He hopes it will become an attraction for visitors, one complete with art programming and promotions of Bosnia’s cultural heritage.
Photo: Samir Jordamovic/Anadolu via Getty Images.
After the idea for the Starry Night park struck Zukic, he became fascinated by Van Gogh and traveled to France in 2023 to visit some of the places where the Dutch painter worked, including Saint-Remy-en-Provence and Arles.
Starry Night—which is actually a painting of early morning, as evidenced by the presence of the morning star, Venus—was painted during Van Gogh’s yearlong stay at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum. It was painted largely from inside a windowless room, and though much of the scene is imaginary, including the stage of the moon and the presence of the village, other aspects have been proved to be scientifically accurate, such as the atmospheric dynamics of its clouds.
Zukic believes his accurate representation will become more beautiful in time as the trees and plants grow. “This is the largest representation of The Starry Night,” Zukic said, “the result of 20 years of dreams, of living those dreams to make them real.”