Roll up, roll up! All the fun of the fair is coming to The Shed in New York in November. Not an art fair, though, but an art fun fair.
The Luna Luna project, billed as “the world’s first art amusement park”, was resurrected last year and shown in Los Angeles. The arty carousels will now grace the Big Apple and New Yorkers will be able to take in signage, rides and pavilions created by artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sonia Delaunay, Keith Haring, Salvador Dalí and Rebecca Horn.
The original fair was the brainchild of André Heller, an Austrian artist and actor turned impresario, who managed to persuade around 30 artists to create their own versions of popular fairground rides. In 1987, Luna Luna was unveiled in a park in Hamburg. Around half of the original installations were shown in Los Angeles including Hockney’s enchanted forest, Dalí’s geodesic dome, Delaunay’s painterly abstractions on an entry archway and a chair ride by Kenny Scharf. Most of these are for viewing only though, due to their fragility. So, unlike at a regular art fair, visitors are not at risk of being taken for a ride.