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 Night time”, composed of 1000’s of crops.
“Vincent Van Gogh belongs to us too. It is our heritage and this can be a means of paying tribute to him,” Halim Zukic advised AFP.
Behind him, tens of 1000’s of lavender bushes, grasses and different crops kind 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 potential to easily reproduce a flat picture on a three-dimensional house,” Zukic mentioned.
“Impressed by the portray, we tried to stay to the shapes and proportions, in order that it seems to be just like the portray as a lot as potential.
“And I feel we succeeded.”
The 56-year-old entrepreneur first seen the land 20 years in the past when he was coming back from a day trip 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 eager about “Starry Night time”, one of many favorite landscapes in New York’s Museum of Trendy Artwork (MoMA).
However the thought simply clicked in 2018 when Zukic seen the tracks left on the garden by a tractor.
“To my eyes, these tracks regarded like spirals from “Starry Night time” 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 each day by as much as 20-30 gardeners.
He declined to say what it value 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 timber,” he mentioned.
“There is not a single straight line within the park — identical to in nature.”
On the identical time, Zukic grew to become excited about Van Gogh, about whom he knew little or no on the time.
At this time, 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 Night time” 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 timber nonetheless want time to flourish so the general public will want just a few extra months of persistence, he mentioned. “Having cash just isn’t sufficient. You want time for a park,” he mentioned. “I would say we have created a very good basis. The park will likely be extra lovely yearly.”
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by EDNBOX workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)