Thirty-six years after it was shuttered, Luna Luna amusement park, a wonderland of contemporary art, will soon reopen in Los Angeles, thanks to Drake.
The Canadian rapper and his media company DreamCrew purchased the one-of-a-kind pleasure ground, slated to be unveiled this month in a 60,000-square-foot warehouse space in downtown L.A.
The exhibit, “Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy,” filled with attractions handcrafted by leading contemporary artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Salvador Dalí and David Hockney, will run through spring 2024 as an immersive art exhibition, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“When I first heard about Luna Luna I was blown away,” Drake said in a statement, The New York Times reported. “It’s such a unique and special way to experience art. This is a big idea and opportunity that centers around what we love most: bringing people together.”
The original Luna Luna was launched for a limited time in the summer of 1987 in Hamburg, Germany.
It was the brainchild of Austrian artist André Heller, who curated the space by commissioning the most prominent artists at that time.
Its unique rides and attractions include a musical enchanted forest crafted by Hockney, a Ferris wheel of drawings by Basquiat, a Haring-designed carousel with seats shaped like cartoon characters and a funhouse mirror by Dalí.
Some of the decades-old rides, such as Haring’s carousel and Basquiat’s Ferris wheel, will not be open to guests, since they “most assuredly wouldn’t pass a 2023 inspection,” the L.A. Times explained.
As for its contributing artists, Haring, for one, who died in 1990 at age 31 of AIDS-related complications, had a special connection to the park.
“Luna Luna was special to Keith,” Gil Vazquez, his friend, and president and executive director of the Keith Haring Foundation, told the L.A. Times. “Reflecting on his own memories of times at amusement parks I’m sure brought back the magic of childhood that resonated deeply with him.”
Basquiat’s sister Lisane spoke about what the magical venue meant to her brother, who died in 1988 at 27 from an overdose.
“Jean-Michel loved play and fun,” Lisane told the L.A. Times “He enjoyed amusement parks and experienced them frequently as a child growing up in New York and, specifically, Brooklyn. Amusement parks were completely on brand for him, albeit an unusual place for him and his friends to collaborate.”
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