Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy

Season 1 Finale. When Basquiat forgeries shake up the art world, the Luna Luna team makes a surprising decision. Despite the drama, the art amusement park readies itself for a 2024 reopening thousands of miles away from its original location, to a new brand audience, in hopes of a utopian dream offering an escape from today’s troubles.

Contact:

Instagram: @lunaluna

TikTok: @thisislunaluna

Luna Luna website: www.lunaluna.com

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The Team Behind Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy:

Hosted by Helen Molesworth

Produced by DreamCrew, Maria Luisa Tucker, and Erika Gajda

Executive Producers: Maggie Gilbride, Anthony Gonzales, and Peter Nelson

Sound Design & Engineering by Sam Bair | Original Music by Daniel Wohl

Contributors: Bryant Urstadt, Julian Myers-Szupinska, Eitan Frysh, and Madison Filzer

Creative: Something Special Studios

Marketing and Communications: _general population

Special thanks to Michael Goldberg, Daniel McClean, Justin Wills, Naomi Brooks, Olivia Belkin & Ferdinand Sarnitz

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The art world changed drastically in the 2000s. And decades after its initial success, Luna Luna creeps back into public consciousness. A group coalesces to revive the lost amusement park, but just as it’s resurrected, so too does a devastating scandal. It’s unclear whether André, Luna Luna’s creator, will be able to see the project through.

Contact:

Instagram: @lunaluna

TikTok: @thisislunaluna

Luna Luna website: www.lunaluna.com

———

The Team Behind Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy:

Hosted by Helen Molesworth

Produced by DreamCrew, Maria Luisa Tucker, and Erika Gajda

Executive Producers: Maggie Gilbride, Anthony Gonzales, and Peter Nelson

Sound Design & Engineering by Sam Bair | Original Music by Daniel Wohl

Contributors: Bryant Urstadt, Julian Myers-Szupinska, Eitan Frysh, and Madison Filzer

Creative: Something Special Studios

Marketing and Communications: _general population

Special thanks to Michael Goldberg, Daniel McClean, Justin Wills, Naomi Brooks, Olivia Belkin & Ferdinand Sarnitz

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Luna Luna’s opening day neared, the rides went from concepts to actuality. But on the day of opening, it was greeted with rain. Lots and lots of rain. The park included a symphony of farts, stilt-walkers, and a satirical take on post-war Germany and was deemed a success. The press said it was headed for a world tour, but turns out that flipping the world on its head by suspending the normal rules of social engagement might not have staying power.

Contact:

Instagram: @lunaluna

TikTok: @thisislunaluna

Luna Luna website: www.lunaluna.com

———

The Team Behind Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy:

Hosted by Helen Molesworth

Produced by DreamCrew, Maria Luisa Tucker, and Erika Gajda

Executive Producers: Maggie Gilbride, Anthony Gonzales, and Peter Nelson

Sound Design & Engineering by Sam Bair | Original Music by Daniel Wohl

Contributors: Bryant Urstadt, Julian Myers-Szupinska, Eitan Frysh, and Madison Filzer

Creative: Something Special Studios

Marketing and Communications: _general population

Special thanks to Michael Goldberg, Daniel McClean, Justin Wills, Naomi Brooks, Olivia Belkin & Ferdinand Sarnitz

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

To curate a unique collaboration of old-world Europe and the new-wave American scene, the man behind the great amusement park must venture to New York City. With his heart set on one artist in particular, Basquiat, he offers him the grandest attraction at Luna Luna–the ferris wheel. But André Heller, the fabulist, may have overpromised the lengths of which Luna Luna could go.

Contact:

Instagram: @lunaluna

TikTok: @thisislunaluna

Luna Luna website: www.lunaluna.com

———

The Team Behind Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy:

Hosted by Helen Molesworth

Produced by DreamCrew, Maria Luisa Tucker, and Erika Gajda

Executive Producers: Maggie Gilbride, Anthony Gonzales, and Peter Nelson

Sound Design & Engineering by Sam Bair | Original Music by Daniel Wohl

Contributors: Bryant Urstadt, Julian Myers-Szupinska, Eitan Frysh, and Madison Filzer

Creative: Something Special Studios

Marketing and Communications: _general population

Special thanks to Michael Goldberg, Daniel McClean, Justin Wills, Naomi Brooks, Olivia Belkin & Ferdinand Sarnitz

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

André grew up in dreary post-war Vienna, but was always searching for joy and exuberance. He became Austria’s first pop radio DJ and then a celebrated pop singer, peace activist, and artist. Meanwhile in New York, the stuffy white art world was starting to open its doors to something new – the intersection of graffiti, hip hop, and one young genius in particular, Jean-Michel Basquiat. The two would soon become unlikely collaborators.

Contact:

Instagram: @lunaluna

TikTok: @thisislunaluna

Luna Luna website: www.lunaluna.com

———

The Team Behind Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy:

Hosted by Helen Molesworth

Produced by DreamCrew, Maria Luisa Tucker, and Erika Gajda

Executive Producers: Maggie Gilbride, Anthony Gonzales, and Peter Nelson

Sound Design & Engineering by Sam Bair | Original Music by Daniel Wohl

Contributors: Bryant Urstadt, Julian Myers-Szupinska, Eitan Frysh, and Madison Filzer

Creative: Something Special Studios

Marketing and Communications: _general population

Special thanks to Michael Goldberg, Daniel McClean, Justin Wills, Naomi Brooks, Olivia Belkin & Ferdinand Sarnitz

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Next week on Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy. To tell the story of the revival of a lost amusement park, we have to back up and examine who he is, and his motivations. The man who stood as the ring leader to it all—André Heller.

Contact:

Instagram: @lunaluna

TikTok: @thisislunaluna

Luna Luna website: www.lunaluna.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1987, André Heller establishes the world’s first art amusement park with attractions designed by greats like David Hockney, Salvador Dali, and Jean-Michel Basquiat--Luna Luna. After just three months, the works would be packed into storage containers for more than 35 years. Until 2021, when an unlikely investor bought the entire thing sight unseen.

Contact:

Instagram: @lunaluna

TikTok: @thisislunaluna

Luna Luna website: www.lunaluna.com

———

The Team Behind Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy:

Hosted by Helen Molesworth

Produced by DreamCrew, Maria Luisa Tucker, and Erika Gajda

Executive Producers: Maggie Gilbride, Anthony Gonzales, and Peter Nelson

Sound Design & Engineering by Sam Bair | Original Music by Daniel Wohl

Contributors: Bryant Urstadt, Julian Myers-Szupinska, Eitan Frysh, and Madison Filzer

Creative: Something Special Studios

Marketing and Communications: _general population

Special thanks to Michael Goldberg, Daniel McClean, Justin Wills, Naomi Brooks, Olivia Belkin & Ferdinand Sarnitz

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy, hosted by art historian Helen Molesworth, unearths the lost history and revival of Luna Luna, the world’s first art amusement park. Featuring works by Lichtenstein, Basquiat, Haring, Dalí, Hockney, and more, this six-episode series explores the visionary spectacle that vanished for decades… until now.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices