The Shed in Hudson Yards has brought back the first-ever art amusement park, first opened in 1987, through “Luna Luna: The Forgotten Fantasy,” which runs from Nov. 20 to Jan. 5.
For seven weeks in 1987, in Hamburg, Germany, a large series of artists came together and opened “Luna Luna” to the public. “Luna Luna” was a project formulated by singer and poet Andre Heller, who dreamt of finding a way to bring a variety of different art forms together and allow them to be appreciated in a way that tore down the bounds of a traditional museum.
In an interview with TimeOut, Heller was asked how he was able to get so many different artists to commit to the creation of “Luna Luna.” His answer was simple: “I asked everyone the same questions: Have you ever been a child? Yes. As a child, did you visit an amusement park? Yes. Did you like it? Yes.”
In the past 40 years, every piece of the amusement park was scattered throughout 44 large shipping containers in Texas. Heller’s plan of taking “Luna Luna” on a world tour never came to be, but it is now finally coming to fruition. Although it is many years later, Heller is still around to see it happen.
The containers were bought by rapper Drake, who is working alongside abstract artist Michael Goldberg, now the chief experience officer of “Luna Luna.” A team was built to restore all the pieces back together. It took two years before the attractions and artifacts of the park were ready to be displayed once again.
Not only did the attraction perform its duty as an amusement park, but it also served as a huge political message for its time, as artists turned to their work as a way of coping with the trauma of a post-World War II period.
“Luna Luna” was created “out of a desire to channel the power of art to ensure fascism could never again take hold of the public imagination,” the exhibit wrote on a display.
Alongside the attractions, Heller created a wedding chapel where it was declared that anyone there could get married to whatever or whomever they wanted. It served as a radical political act, as marriage was only recognized between heterosexual couples during this time.
They even mocked the Nazi Administrative building, Reich Chancellery, by taking its design and transforming it into its restroom area, entitling it the “Crap Chancellery.” Although the restroom was not part of the exhibit, the two columns that stood outside of them remain, and feature a large feces sculpture on top of each of them.
There was also a shooting gallery filled with different political imagery and a large handwritten statement on display, written by Joseph Beuys, on how capitalism hinders creativity.
Heller and his team tested the bounds of society with their park with live farting to accompany classical music.
Obscure character mascots also roamed the grounds of the exhibit, such as an elephant with extremely long legs that demonstrated eating and then discarding a carrot. Two extremely tall creatures with abstract faces and puppeteers who manipulated flying butterflies that ‘attacked’ guests could be seen walking throughout.
Although the public can no longer go on the attractions, the structures such as Jean-Michel Basquiat’s painted Ferris Wheel, Keith Haring’s painted carousel, and Kenny Scharf’s painted chair swing ride are all still functioning, and every few minutes the attractions will start to run, helping the park come to life.
