Luna Luna: The Lost (and Found Again) Art Amusement Park
Plus what Brand Therapist Evelyn Starr is reading
I recently spent a long weekend in NYC celebrating my husband’s birthday, and one of the things we decided to do was to hit up Luna Luna1. I have long wanted to see this crazy amusement park after I heard that Salvador Dalí designed one of its attractions. And let me tell you (and show you!) how cool it is.
First, a video, then a bit of history. This is inside the attraction designed by Dalí. It wasn’t too over the top for him, but it's still pretty cool, considering he was in the last years of his life when this idea came together.
Originally conceived by Austrian artist André Heller, Luna Luna was a one-of-a-kind traveling art amusement park that first opened in Hamburg, Germany, in 1987. Heller envisioned a “terrain of modern art” that would engage people of all ages and backgrounds in a playful and interactive way. To bring this vision to life, he commissioned some of the most prominent artists of the time, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Salvador Dalí, and David Hockney, to design the park’s various attractions. The result was a surreal and immersive fairground where roller coasters, carousels, and pavilions were transformed into living works of art.
Despite its artistic and cultural significance, Luna Luna had a fleeting existence. During its three-month run in Hamburg, the park attracted over 300,000 visitors, but its future was soon derailed. Financial difficulties, legal disputes, and logistical challenges prevented Luna Luna from embarking on its planned world tour. Instead, its collection of artworks and installations was packed into 44 shipping containers and placed in storage, where it remained for over three decades, a forgotten relic of a dream that once was.
Here’s the wonderful swing ride2 designed by Kenny Scharf.
Fortunately, in 2022, after years of lying dormant, Luna Luna was rediscovered and resurrected by a team of art enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. With the support of rapper Drake, the forgotten fantasy was meticulously restored, bringing Heller’s original vision back to life for a new generation. Now on display at The Shed in New York City until March 16th, the reimagined Luna Luna showcases its original artworks and installations, allowing visitors to step into a piece of lost art history. More than three decades after its closure, I walked among the attractions at Luna Luna, and let me tell you, it was very cool. You can learn more at the official Luna Luna site.
I’ll leave you with one last video, of the attraction designed by Jean-Michel Basquait.
What We’re Reading
Evelyn Starr is one of the wonderful women in a writing community I’m part of. She, like me, also has a foot in the world of marketing, working as a brand therapist and nonfiction book coach who also loves yoga, travel, tea, and dark chocolate. You can connect with her via her website, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Bluesky.
What I Just Finished Reading:
The Life Impossible byMatt Haig. What an uplifting story with an unexpected protagonist. I love how Haig weaved his environmental concerns, fondness for Ibiza, and understanding of how to manage grief into this novel. If you like underdog stories, you'll enjoy this.
What I’m Currently Reading:
The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women's Lives Forever by Lydia Reeder. While the book's action takes place in the 19th century, it explains several of the contorted rationales still underlying the sublimation of misogyny and feminism today. The narrative includes partial biographies of several women who were the first to become doctors and to gain membership in prominent medical societies. Their creativity and resourcefulness not only opened the field of medicine to women, it countered quackery that took many women's lives.
What I’m Looking Forward To Reading:
Says Who? A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words, Anne Curzan. Recommended to me by a friend who is also a writer and book coach. I enjoy creative looks at writing and language. My understanding is that this is not only insightful, but hilarious. My kind of guidebook!
Where I’ll Be - TONIGHT February 13th
Join me at Wellesley Books for a fun Galentine’s event tonight! Tickets here (the cost can be put toward the purchase of a book).
Next week! I’ll be in conversation with Olivia Kate Cerrone at the best bookstore in the country specializing in Italian books (and books set in Italy), I AM Books in Boston’s North End. Snag your free ticket here.
What’s Bringing Me Joy
There is a force sucking a lot of joy out of the world right now, but maybe this will help you hold on a little longer.
Thanks for Joining Me
If you love food and love Italy, and haven’t read THE CHEF’S SECRET or FEAST OF SORROW, click the links to learn where to buy your copy! And now you can order my latest, IN THE GARDEN OF MONSTERS!
You can also follow me here: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Threads | Bluesky
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This was a MUCH better birthday event than the dolorous (although important) exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt museum, which we also went to. We had thought we’d be looking at cool furniture and architectural installations. Instead, every exhibit was about human oppression—slavery, racism, misogyny, genocide, etc. We left feeling so depressed.
In high school in the Boise, Idaho area, I knew a girl who had a bad accident on a swing ride when she was young and it broke loose, throwing her to the ground and breaking a number of bones. She was lucky to be alive. Their family received a hefty settlement from it but she was forever a bit messed up. I have never ridden one of those swing rides since then!
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great post!!
This is amazing-- what a post! I was just in NYC a few weeks ago and completely missed this. That's what I get for falling behind on my Substack reading. Argh!