World famous artists designed this carnival in 1987. Nearly 40 years later, it's back
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Luna Luna, a short-lived German amusement park from the 1980s, has been reestablished in Los Angeles. Its elements were designed by some of the most famous artists of the late 20th century, not including BJ Leiderman, who writes our theme music. But NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports, this time, the rides are off-limits.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: In the summer of '87, in Hamburg, Germany, more than 250,000 people attended Luna Luna. On the fairgrounds, visitors got to ride a small Ferris wheel adorned with drawings by Jean-Michel Basquiat. They could waltz inside a cylindrical pavilion created by David Hockney. They could wind through Roy Lichtenstein's pop art glass labyrinth with music by Philip Glass. Visitors could also walk inside a mirrored geodesic dome decorated by surrealist Salvador Dali, and they could ride a carousel painted with bright graffiti figures spray painted by Keith Haring.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "ANDRE HELLER'S LUNA LUNA")
KEITH HARING: I thought the idea sounded great because it is, in a way, something that has been a fantasy of mine since the first time that I went to Disneyland or went to amusement parks in America when I was a kid.
DEL BARCO: That's the late Keith Haring in 1987 in a documentary about the amusement park. Luna Luna was the brainchild of Austrian multimedia artist Andre Heller, an avant-garde poet, singer and impresario. In the video, he says producing Luna Luna had always been his dream.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "ANDRE HELLER'S LUNA LUNA")
ANDRE HELLER: Creating an amusement park out of art was an early desire, and we had to find the right artist in the right combination.
DEL BARCO: Heller managed to convince 33 of the world's top contemporary artists to be a part of Luna Luna. Among them, American Kenny Scharf.
KENNY SCHARF: So he came just out of the blue, and, like, it sounded very far-fetched. But I'm like, OK, great. And I loved doing it. I really believed it was going to send me, you know, to the moon and the art world moon or whatever.
DEL BARCO: Scharf remembers spending three weeks in a cold warehouse in Vienna customizing sculptures and a giant swing ride with his cartoon figures.
SCHARF: Of course, I was into it. I mean, it fit perfectly with my philosophy for art then and now, which is art is not only for a wall with a frame in a gallery, a museum or above a couch. Art can be everywhere and should be. And art can be something that you experience and that you actually sit on and you swing around and it's fun.
DEL BARCO: German artist Monika GilSing remembers designing flags for Luna Luna.
MONIKA GILSING: (Through interpreter) It was like a small miracle that an art world was created that people had never seen before, and it was very exciting to see art in this context. On the other hand, art critics - it seemed like they still needed some time to recognize what was going on.
DEL BARCO: After three months, Luna Luna closed down, dashing Heller's grand plans to tour the park around the world.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "ANDRE HELLER'S LUNA LUNA")
HELLER: It was an absolute masterpiece, but I had it in my hands, and I let it slip away.
DEL BARCO: Details of exactly what happened are as muddy as the fairgrounds had been that rainy German summer. Michael Goldberg, a creative director in New York, says some fundraising deals fell through. Then Heller went back and forth with an American foundation that wanted to bring Luna Luna to San Diego.
MICHAEL GOLDBERG: The foundation basically tried to back out of the deal, and it ended up going to litigation in three different courts.
DEL BARCO: In the end, everything that was in Luna Luna - dismantled rides, artwork and merch - was packed into 44 shipping containers. They languished on a desert ranch in Texas for decades. Then, in 2020, Goldberg says he learned about the carnival and asked for Heller's blessing to launch Luna Luna 2.0. With DreamCrew - the entertainment company run by megastar Drake - and Live Nation as investors, he spent $100 million to acquire the shipping containers sight unseen.
GOLDBERG: I was concerned. You know, did I just lead somebody into a deal, and they're going to end up buying a bunch of dust?
DEL BARCO: Goldberg remembers shaking nervously when they opened the first container, packed to the brim with posters and T-shirts from 1987.
GOLDBERG: Some of the merchandise, particularly, you know, the apparel, some sort of critters or rodents had gotten in there and basically ripped some of the product up to shreds. But then other pieces of the apparel are in perfect condition.
DEL BARCO: He says they were relieved opening the rest.
GOLDBERG: One of the first pieces that came out was one of the figures from the Keith Haring carousel, and the work looked like it was, you know, painted yesterday.
DEL BARCO: With no instruction manuals, the team spent two years meticulously putting the attractions back together.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DEL BARCO: Nearly 40 years after its premiere, Luna Luna has been recreated inside a warehouse in the Boyle Heights neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles. Some of the absurdist performances are on display, and real-life stilt walkers and puppeteers roam around the rides, which visitors are not allowed to touch.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHURCH BELLS RINGING)
DEL BARCO: But just like in 1987, visitors can still take their vows at the wedding chapel Andre Heller created, says curatorial director Lumi Tan.
LUMI TAN: This was Andre Heller's idea that you could get married to whomever or whatever you wanted in 1987, which was very radical, you know, in a time when gay marriage wasn't legal.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: By the power vested in me and the many moons of Luna Luna, I now pronounce you wedded as cosmic beings.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHURCH BELLS RINGING)
DEL BARCO: Kenny Scharf says Luna Luna was ahead of its time, and when it folded in 1987, Andre Heller was completely crushed. So was he.
SCHARF: It wasn't like I forgot about it. I never forgot about it. In fact, I never stopped talking about it.
DEL BARCO: Scharf lives in Los Angeles and says he hopes one day visitors will be able to fly around on his swing ride again. Luna Luna: the Forgotten Fantasy will be up in LA until May 12. But the new owners do have plans to take it on the road, so you never know.
Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.
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