Sailing Through Luna Luna, a Carnival of Modern Art (Video)
I just paid a visit to a magic kingdom in Los Angeles. No, not the one you were thinking of, otherwise I would have capitalized it. This one was not the domain of a mouse and a pantsless duck.
Earlier in the week my family honored the Scandinavian tradition of watching a Donald Duck cartoon Christmas Eve. In it, Uncle Donald, after a noisy altercation with Chip ‘n’ Dale, indentures the pesky pair to a chipmunk wheel to power his bicycle, which his girl friend Daisy attacks as cruelty before she sends him quacking.
Luna Luna, the magic kingdom of which I speak, is nothing like that:
A carousel by Keith Haring.
An enchanted tree by David Hockney.
Salvador Dali’s house of mirrors.
Manfred Deiks’ “Palace of the Winds,” an homage to the fart, violins and sound effects included. What child wouldn’t love that?
Too bad you can’t ride Jean-Michel Basquait’s ferris wheel, emblazoned with the butt of an ape, in true Basquait form. It doesn’t meet safety standards, but still spins, accompanied by a soundtrack from Miles Davis.
Luna Luna is a “Forgotten Fantasy” now partially restored. It was created by Viennese artist and performer Andre Heller and debuted in Hamburg, Germany in 1987 as a carnival of rides, games and circus acts. Heller envisioned Luna Parks that would spread art and playfulness around the world. It was a rousing hit in Hamburg, but due to financial woes, lawyers and other lapses of humor, closed down and was stored in a fleet of shipping containers in…wait for the rimshot…Texas.
For the last few years, curators, artists and technicians, with the with inspiration and financial assistance of the musician Drake, have worked to restore what they could of it and reconstruct it in LA.
You can’t ride the rides any more, but the carousels still spin and the music plays on.
And, to highlight your visit, you can get married. Heller, himself, designed a wedding chapel where one can wed anyone or anything:
“Marry a friend of marry a foe;
marry a shoe or marry a crow
Marry whomever or whatever you wish,
be it a bike or be it a fish.
For love is love at Luna Luna, even if you love a tuna.”
Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy is open at Ace Mission Studios in LA through the spring of 2024. Timed tickets cost $38 on weekdays, $48 on weekends, $20 for kids and $85 for a VIP ticket that will allow you to walk into a handful of exhibits.
