A flash mob shocked shoppers at a Dutch mall when a throng of people dressed in 17th century garb suddenly appeared, positioning themselves to recreate a classic painting.
The Dutch flashmob struck a shopping center in the southern city of Breda, shocking shoppers when they recreated the Rembrant painting “The Night Watch.”
They picked a particularly apt painting to recreate. Flash mobs have turned into a large-scale form of performance art, with scenes sometimes involving hundreds of participants. The ease of the internet and social network have allowed organizers to turn flash mobs into giant meetings of strangers to act out a performance or dance.
“The Night Watch” too is known for its massive size. Painted on a canvas that’s close to 12 feet by 14 feet, the painting was one of the classics of the Dutch Golden Age of art.
The flash mob that shocked the Dutch shoppers all wore the traditional 17th century garb that the people depicted in the painting wear. Completed in in 1642, “The Night Watch” depicts Captain Frans Banning Cocq and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburch, leading out their city guard.
The flash mob participants had a hasty retreated of their own. The scene started with a theft alarm ringing in the mall, drawing the attention of worried shoppers. They turned to find a man who looked like he just got out of a time machine running away.
The man then joined others who rappelled down from the ceiling on ropes, and together they jumped over a railing to join men awaiting them on horses.
The flashmob made its way past shoppers to assemble in an open area in the shopping center, where one-by-one they came together to recreate “ The Night Watch .” After the flash mob shocked the shoppers, a large frame dropped from the ceiling to freeze the iconic painting..