Claude Monet's works step out of the frame in an exhibition

"You are about to enter a blooming aquarium," says Annabelle Mauger, before moving from the "Garden of Giverny" to the next room of the exhibition in front of the media on Tuesday. She co-designed "Imagine Monet" and created the scenario for the immersive project.

Here, Monet's paintings "lose the physicality of the painting" and simultaneously take on a different one - on curtains, the floor or on the walls. According to those responsible for the project, this creates an impression that Claude Monet (1840-1926) was keen to convey.

The moment and the feeling

In his works, the Impressionist tried to capture the moment and the feeling, with light, often outdoors and preferably in his colorful garden. In doing so, the artist opposed academicism and painting as a reproduction of reality, which dominated his time, says Androula Michael, curator of the exhibition.

Normally, color was subordinate to contours and lines. Monet "blew all that up", says Michael. In the famous water lilies, for example, there is no horizon, no sky. "He wanted to create an immersion and say: 'Let's enter the picture together'." "Imagine Monet" now focuses on such an experience. Like the painter, the project aims to go beyond the frame.

In the first room, the exhibition shows the painter's gardens in Giverny with its famous green bridge and flowers. Then another room provides information about the artist's career and work. The third room is the heart of the exhibition: accompanied by music, around 200 works are presented for 30 minutes. Not only large-format works are projected. Rather, those responsible want to put "details in dialog with each other", says Michael.

"Imagine Monet" has already been shown in Stockholm and can now be seen in Lausanne at Plateforme 10 until June 28.