“Luna Luna” restoration returns to a more exciting—but dead—art world

modern incarnation of luna luna This is not the 1987 theme park imagined by artist and curator Andre Heller. It’s not even close. Instead of a park in Hamburg, Germany, this revival is hosted at The Shed – a relatively new 200,000-square-foot structure in Midtown Manhattan built to “welcome innovative art and ideas.” In a broader cultural context this is dripping nostalgia and pastit 100 million dollars (Partially funded by rapper Drake’s media company, DreamCrew) The repurposing of ’80s pieces by big business interests is a compelling window to a time when provocative pop art looked to the future and sought to influence. Used to try.

In 2025, a ticket to attend is no longer 20 Deutsche Marks (about $22 today), and you can’t go on any rides. But for $44 dollars ($64 on weekends), you can still see majestic attractions created by artists like Salvador Dali, Keith Haring, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. This is not a fairground designed for running and laughing – it is an exhibition organized for milling about and posting on social media. Some of the interactive experiences are: walking around the two halls of mirrors, having a (mock) wedding in the wedding chapel, joining in with the actors patrolling the floor, and playing with stuffed rubber blocks.

Despite the original, luna luna The trendy participatory “immersive museum,” finds a successful middle ground between curated exhibition and historic preservation project – combining a serious art show with Instagram-perfect photo opps. First of all, this formula has proven incredibly popular LA welcomes 150,000 visitorsFor the better part of 2024 and now extends to February 23 on New York City.

Upon entering, an usher advises visitors to work their way along the perimeter and read a historical timeline on the walls – a new element of the display – before taking in the artefacts. The timeline begins in the late 20th century, combining historical context with the history of the park and its contributors. The tragedies of the Holocaust, notable art history moments and political upheavals give audiences a sense of context and urgency. But the timeline stops at the park’s opening in 1987. A brief addendum description luna lunaIt is a quiet retreat from public view and references some historical events such as 9/11, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the sale of a Van Gogh for $53.9 million. The timeline restarts in the 2000s, with little space devoted to the practical details of the restoration. luna lunaNo historical context added to latest history.

The lack of interest in the contemporary seems appropriate for our current moment. A in the middle Uncertain future due to climate change, Regression of civil rights under incoming administrationand wider cast censorshipIt’s no wonder we’re inundated with economically and politically safe reboots and live-action adaptations. In ghosts of my life (2014), pop philosopher and music critic Mark Fisher writes about “the slow cancellation of the future”, describing how – thanks to various political and social factors – the pop culture of the 2000s and beyond There has been less and less interest in breaking new creative ground. Its focus is to remember and recycle the past. Similarly, Dean Kissick’s recent (much appreciated and criticized, Harper’s EssayIn part, he regretted the art world’s “nostalgic turn to history” – looking to the past as a prosaic way to rethink our present moment.

restoration luna lunaThe futuristic art of the time stands as a monument to an era when mass culture was an imaginative tool for interpreting and reimagining our present condition – not merely a commodity supplied to the market or an insular field initiated by art-schools. In form. Original luna luna One was funded by an arts and culture magazine, an impossible proposition with current media budgets. The work is confrontational and political – from Basquiat’s Ferris wheel to Jim Crow-era amusement park segregation, to Heller’s flight of a marriage chapel in protest of Germany’s then-ban on same-sex marriage. It challenged not only global politics, but the art world as well, taking the work out of the gallery, off the canvas, and into new territory.

Outside the park, particular artists responded to their world with a now rare interest in innovation and excitement. Attempting to understand global violence, Dalí’s pioneering Surrealist work would have been unimaginable to his Impressionist ancestors 40 years earlier. In New York, run by property developers, Herring was arrested several times for his public graffiti and activism. Daniel Spoerri pioneered the now-acclaimed but initially controversial Eat Art, using food and its human by-products (feces is part of a piece). luna luna) as a reaction to the European bourgeoisie and Nazism. Spoerri recalls viewers’ initial reactions to his work: “Awesome! Who would put such a thing on the wall?”

Now, our art-market stars (who seem to be modern pioneers in the accessible art tradition) – think Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Damien Hirst, Yayoi Kusama – feel timeless, but not in a good wayThey are incredibly safe and measured, their work seems so impromptu that it could have been made at any time. And while there are still artists who are interested in making challenging, stimulating work, luna luna Originally created at a time when the work was popular and consumed by the public. if the work is new luna luna Had it responded to our current moment the same way it did in the ’80s, it probably wouldn’t have gotten corporate funding.

Although our culture today grapples with similar issues, both museum crowds and art-market stars aim for a more softly liberal approach. “Accessible” has come to mean unchallenged rather than lacking barriers to consumption. luna luna Not as a shade employee hat (available for purchase gift shop for $30) declares—”New art for New York.” But this is good old art displayed in a context that strips it of its original avant-garde pop optimism. originally conceived as a Interactive art experiences for the publicThe heavy price tag is shocking and feels like it’s flying in front of him luna lunaHas progressive basic objectives. To enter Dali’s mirrored dome and Hockney’s pavilion, or to get married in Heller’s chapel, costs an additional $94 (weddings can also be purchased a la carte). if we had to catch luna luna True to its core promises of simple inclusivity, it may not get a passing grade.

The current cultural climate creates a dreamy, peaceful, but nightmarish facade – like something out there. Goosebumps A book about an amusement park running without riders seems appropriate. It’s strange to see the glowing carousel of herring spinning without anyone enjoying it. Take the journey into a dark, nondescript theater full of swelling, theatricality and futuristic music, it’s so terrifying it’s moving. Whereas the original park was framed by a heavy historical moment – ​​a few years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, amid the AIDS epidemic, etc. – and staged outside in the real world, the reconstruction exists in a literal void: a black room.

On your way out, the gift shop serves as another sobering reminder that we’re not actually in the art world of the 1980s. luna luna is selling archival material Hundreds of dollars and for $35 luxurious Moon mascot. Despite the incredible work that goes into the show, money and nostalgia are still unavoidably powerful and very boring influences. Once you step outside The Shed at Hudson Yards (a 2010s Manhattan neighborhood development centered around a luxury mall), you’ll see the infamous, $200 million giant shipOpened in 2019, the piece is designed by architect Thomas Hardwick of ultra-high-budget public art. It is a monumental metal staircase leading to somewhere with a repeating honeycomb shape. Moving through it, there’s no real reason to be on one part over another. At the top is the middle view. It exists. the electric, forward energy of luna luna is absent, replaced by a jagged, restricted, and ultimately frustrating experience.

Instead of supporting provocative avant-garde art for all to appreciate, we have turned to amassing incredible amounts of resources for work that makes no sense. Worse, it may actually reflect the ambiguity of the current landscape. If luna luna Born at a time when the future seemed infinite and the affordable cost of living allowed experimental artists to work, The Vessel – a massive structure designed to attract visitors to a mall and increase property values Was made – was born by us.

at least luna lunaOur visitors will be able to tap into an age-old belief in the power of art to transform our reality and challenge our perceptions.