After 36 Years, the Luna Luna Amusement Park Reopens
Featuring an extraordinary list of names, from Basquiat to Dalí, the event transports visitors to a once-forgotten moment in the history of art.
Everything surrounding Luna Luna sounds like the making of a gripping Netflix documentary. A legendary cast, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein and Salvador Dalí, all came together to create bespoke work for the world’s first art amusement park. Instead of debuting in a big metropolis like New York or London, the park would opt for humble Hamburg, Germany. Then just after three short months, the event organizer, Austrian artist and entrepreneur André Heller, faced a series of legal challenges that ultimately closed its intended world-wide tour, and led to all of its many valuable artwork to fall in obscurity for nearly 36 years, until Drake came in to breathe new life. It’s been quite the journey. But alongside the Canadian rapper, eager fans and art aficionados, Luna Luna finally pressed play on a period that looked destined to be blip in history.
Housed in a cavernous warehouse on the edge of Downtown Los Angeles, Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy transports audiences old and new into a colorful fairground made of one-off rideable sculptures from some of the biggest artists of the 20th century. David Hockney, Rebecca Horn, Kenny Scharf, Philip Glass, George Baselitz. It would be difficult even today to find an event that brought together the contemporaries of the day in the same way Heller did in the ’80s. When asked about his desire to create such an ambitious event, Heller recalled his childhood, describing it as having left the biggest “impression” in his life, one to which he has “never stopped spinning the web of these childhood myths.”
In a bit of irony, none of the rides are well, rideable because they don’t adhere to modern safety codes. Rather, the artwork now operates like ghostly relics of a bygone period — each with an intriguing backstory. Standouts include Hockney’s Enchanted Tree, a colorful architectural structure that is complemented with a score by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; as well as the Dalí Dome, which characteristic of the Spanish artist, invites visitors into a hallucinatory setting filled with mirrored spheres.
Arguably the frontrunners of the park will likely come in the massive ferris wheel designed by Jean-Michel Basquiat and a merry-go-round by his contemporary, Keith Haring. In the first, a luminescent spinning wheel showcases scrawly painted artworks that recount the myths and daydreams of the prolific artist and is accompanied by music from Miles Davis. In the latter artwork, Haring lends his primitive mark-making to create a rhythmic series of figures that come to life as the carousel spins.
For those looking to step back in time, the first leg of Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy is on view now in Los Angeles and looks to resume its initial tour around the globe. Please visit the amusement park’s website for tickets and more information.
