Luna Luna - A New Old Amusement Park And Art Show

I have been exploring historic amusement zones like the Long Beach Pike, and drawing parallels with other amusement zones in California, and around the world. I saw images of Dismaland, a temporary amusement park created by British street artist Banksy in Somerset in the UK. I was intrigued when I heard about the Luna Luna amusement park exhibit.

What is Luna Luna?

Luna Luna was a 1980s art production by an Austrian artist, Andre Heller. He visualized an artist-created carnival, convinced a number of prominent artists to work for a small fraction of their usual fees, and they created carnival rides and creative experiences themed around a carnival.

It was art and theatre and amusements all in one setting.

The amusements were a Ferris wheel, a swing ride, a carousel. There were large whimsical sculptures atop the rides. Enormous festival flags created by a fabric artist flew all around the grounds. There was a fantastical tree experience, with specially selected music, a wedding chapel where you could get married to your best friend or your bicycle, then get married again to your dog. There were other traditional amusements, created in non-traditional ways. Bawdy humor was reflected in some of the pieces. Notably, the entrance to the W.C. was obvious due to the large sculptures of human waste outside the building. There was also a farting experience/show with the products of flatulence having been converted to music in some fashion. Some might call it distasteful. Others might call it art. It was meant to shock and embarrass and it worked on me.

The performers were a walking moon, colorful stilt walkers and performers with marionettes from, I believe the Bob Baker Marionettes.

What ordinarily might have been a mediocre amusement experience was transformed into an incredible art show. The artists were Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Salvador Dalí, David Hockney, Kenny Scharf, Roland Toper, Jean Tiguely, and Sonia Delaunay. I'm not a particular fan of any one artist (except Salvador Dali (everyone loves his work), but even I can be impressed by the gathering of the group that came together to make Luna Luna happen.

These artists did it to be part of something bigger than each artist independently. They did it for the new setting it created for their art. They did it because it brought their art to a younger audience, that might have been there for the carnival. They did it for the community of artists it brought together to create a legendary art show.

On a display the producers map the story timeline of the creation of Luna parks (which inspired Luna Luna). It starts in the early 1900s with the birth of amusement zones, then Luna Park in Coney Island. The name Luna Park came to be used around the world and to represent amusement zones, usually on the larger scale. Wikipedia has a list of Luna Parks. It takes you through the birth of the artists, two world wars, the building of the Berlin wall. There is much video to take you back to the time when Luna Luna was open.

Answering Questions You Might Have

Would I recommend a visit to Luna Luna? The answer is a resounding YES! It's not often that you get to be at the beginning of an awesome international art history tour... or maybe you do, but I don't. and now I am.

Do the carousels, swing ride and Ferris Wheel move?

YES! During your visit, the rides will start up every few minutes and you can see them move.

Can I ride the Rides?

Unfortunately, no. While they were actual rides that people could take during the actual Luna Luna, the rides have not been restored to carry humans. Even if they were, it's not likely that we would be allowed to ride on these works of art.

What is the Moon Pass?

The Moon Pass gets you access to some additional experiences. The David Hockney Enchanted Tree, the Salvador Dali mirrored Dalidom and the Andre Heller Wedding Chapel. I didn't purchase this, so I can't share the experience, but I was able to view a wedding being performed. I suppose if you wanted a truly unique wedding experience for your bride, groom, guests, you could buy lots of tickets and bring your wedding officiant.

Buying and Changing Tickets

To purchase tickets, you visit the Luna Luna website. I chose the basic $47 ticket. For two people with taxes and site fee, the total purchase came to $117.34. A little pricey, I thought, but it was a lot of work to get the 40 containers of works from its storage area in Texas, bring them to Los Angeles, restore the works inside and prepare the exhibit. Almost as soon as I'd bought it, I realized I'd selected a date with a conflict. I was already scheduled to volunteer at the Brick Convention in Orange county on the original purchase date.

Changing the ticket date was easy. It was simply a matter of pressing the button in the email that read Manage Order. It was in the section called Change the Date of your Order. This is Los Angeles. Time is precious. They'd planned for it. I selected February 4.

Parking

I would like to recommend that you pay for parking. The exhibit is in an area of downtown Los Angeles where you would want to pay for the observed parking lot. Parking was just shy of $20. The parking lot was in the shadow (actually it was raining, there was no shadow) of the 6th Street bridge. We thought we might go up and walk across the bridge after the visit, but it was raining when we left, so we will do it someday.

About the Author: Squigglemom, Trish Tsoiasue celebrates life daily. She records it as she sees it on her YouTube channel(please subscribe!) and has co-authored a book on the Historic Long Beach Pike with 94 year old Paul Miranda, available here. She is an avid enthusiast of historic amusement parks and is working to connect the world together through research and co-created stories of these old amusement zones.