Enchanted bike path inspired by van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’
“I can’t change the fact that my paintings don’t sell,” Vincent van Gogh once said. “But the time will come when people will recognize that they are worth more than the value of the paints used in the picture.” It is, of course, a terrible shame van Gogh never lived to see the profound impact his art had on the world, forever transforming the way so many of us gaze upon the night sky.
Vincent van Gogh’s wildest dreams probably couldn’t prepare him, for example, for the van Gogh-Roosegaarde Bicycle Path, an enchanting living artwork newly unveiled by Studio Roosegaarde. The kilometer-long path is adorned with a special paint that charges during the day and glows after dark. It runs through the Dutch province of Noord Brabant, where van Gogh was born and raised.
The amazing novelty, at the intersection of art and technology, mimics the ecstatic energy and swirling movement of van Gogh’s original. Each illuminated fleck operates like a brushstroke, adding a small yet crucial element to the whirling, unfathomable whole. “It’s a new system that is self-sufficient and practical, and just incredibly poetic,” says designer Daan Roosegaarde.
A solar panel close by generates power to illuminate the painted surface. Some LED lights are embedded in the path as well, casting extra light especially in the case of foggy weather. The fairy tale bike path is the second of Roosegaarde’s five-part Smart Highways project, which aims to create safe and environmentally friendly road networks. The first manifestation, “Glowing Lines,” employed photo-luminescent paint to brighten the edges of the road.
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Roosegaarde says the path is self-sufficient because it generates energy itself.
