Everything about Luna Luna has the sound design of an engrossing Netflix documentary. The first art amusement park in history included a cast of great artists, including Roy Lichtenstein, Salvador Dalí, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, who collaborated to create custom pieces. Rather than make its premiere in London or New York, the park would choose to open in small-town Hamburg, Germany.Only three months later, the event’s organizer, Austrian artist and businessman André Heller, was faced with a string of legal issues that ultimately put an end to the planned global tour. As a result, the valuable artwork of the event was left in obscurity for almost 36 years, until Drake intervened to give it new life. It’s been a fascinating adventure. But in the presence of the Canadian rapper, enthusiastic admirers, and art enthusiasts, Luna Luna ultimately hit record on what appeared to be a passing moment in history.
Located in a vast warehouse near Downtown Los Angeles, Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy immerses both new and old viewers in a vibrant fairground with unique, rideable sculptures created by prominent 20th-century artists. George Baselitz, Philip Glass, Kenny Scharf, Rebecca Horn, and David Hockney. Even in the present day, it would be challenging to locate an occasion that united the people in the same manner as Heller did in the 1980s. In response to a question concerning his motivation for organizing such a large-scale event, Heller spoke on his early years, saying they had made the greatest “impression” on him and that he had “never stopped spinning the web of these childhood myths” because of them.
Two notable pieces include the colorful Enchanted Tree by Hockney, which features a score by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Dalí Dome, a hallmark of the Spanish artist that immerses viewers in a surreal environment full of mirrored spheres.
The enormous ferris wheel created by Jean-Michel Basquiat and the merry-go-round created by his contemporary Keith Haring are arguably the park’s front-runners. In the first, Miles Davis’s music plays as a glowing spinning wheel displays scribbled paintings that tell stories of the prolific artist’s visions and mythologies. In the later piece of art, Haring uses his crude mark-making skills to produce a rhythmic sequence of animated figures that move with the carousel.
For those wishing to travel back in time, Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy’s first leg is currently on display in Los Angeles and is expected to continue its first global tour.
