Visoko:
A Vincent Van Gogh aficionado in Bosnia has turned a plot of land into a large, dwelling replica of the painter’s masterpiece, “Starry Evening”, composed of 1000’s of crops.
“Vincent Van Gogh belongs to us too. It is our heritage and this can be a method of paying tribute to him,” Halim Zukic informed AFP.
Behind him, tens of 1000’s of lavender bushes, grasses and different crops type swirls and spirals throughout a dozen hectares that — seen from the air — unmistakably resemble the celestial configuration painted by the Dutch post-Impressionist grasp in 1889.
“It wasn’t attainable to easily reproduce a flat picture on a three-dimensional house,” Zukic stated.
“Impressed by the portray, we tried to stay to the shapes and proportions, in order that it appears to be like just like the portray as a lot as attainable.
“And I believe we succeeded.”
The 56-year-old entrepreneur first seen the land 20 years in the past when he was getting back from a time out choosing mushrooms close by, within the woods surrounding the village of Luznica in central Bosnia.
He purchased the primary plot with the thought of constructing a hut and making a small, rounded backyard.
On the time, he wasn’t even fascinated by “Starry Evening”, one of many favorite landscapes in New York’s Museum of Trendy Artwork (MoMA).
However the concept simply clicked in 2018 when Zukic seen the tracks left on the garden by a tractor.
“To my eyes, these tracks seemed like spirals from “Starry Evening” and it was an instantaneous choice.”
130,000 lavender crops
The previous insurance coverage firm proprietor, who now works in tourism, purchased extra land and began working it, helped day by day by as much as 20-30 gardeners.
He declined to say what it price to finish his labour of affection, which took six years to accumulate its remaining form.
“We planted round 130,000 lavender bushes, tens of 1000’s of fragrant and medicinal crops, a number of thousand bushes,” he stated.
“There is not a single straight line within the park — similar to in nature.”
On the similar time, Zukic grew to become focused on Van Gogh, about whom he knew little or no on the time.
Right this moment, Zukic talks animatedly concerning the painter, his “love of nature” and the “ardour with which he did his work”.
In 2023, he travelled to France to go to the locations the place Van Gogh spent a few of his most prolific years — Arles and Saint-Remy-en-Provence.
The artist painted “Starry Evening” in June 1889 whereas he was in a Saint Remy psychiatric hospital.
A yr later, he dedicated suicide, aged 37.
In the intervening time, solely a handful of tourists have had the prospect to understand Zukic’s park.
The crops and bushes nonetheless want time to flourish so the general public will want a number of extra months of endurance, he stated. “Having cash shouldn’t be sufficient. You want time for a park,” he stated. “I would say we have created basis. The park shall be extra lovely yearly.”
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
