André Heller in front of his red and rainbow Inflatable café for 1987 Luna Luna park

André Heller

One of André Heller’s contributions to the 1987 Luna Luna park was the Inflatable café One of André Heller’s contributions to the 1987 Luna Luna park was the cardboard cutout Wedding Chapel

André Heller created two attractions for Luna Luna: The Dream Station, an inflatable structure that housed a cafe, and a Wedding Chapel installation where guests could marry whomever or whatever they wanted.

Artist

André Heller

Attraction

Inflatable café

Wedding chapel

Born

1947, Austria

Heller works in diverse mediums, including installation, theater, and sculpture

He began planning Luna Luna in 1974

Luna Luna continues Heller’s interest in creating fun and entertaining experiences for the masses

Fairground view: André Heller, Wedding chapel. Luna Luna, Hamburg, Germany, June-July, 1987.
Fairground view: André Heller, Inflatable café. Luna Luna, Hamburg, Germany, June-July, 1987.

Driven by his ceaseless curiosity and desire to traverse artistic mediums, André Heller has worked across film, installation, music, theater, sculpture, and writing. Although much of his earlier work focused on on fun and leisure, Heller’s recent work harbors political meaning. Recently, he curated an exhibition at Weingut Taggenbrunn in St. Veit an der Glan where his collaborative project Weltzustandsmaschine (“World State Machine”) dispenses information about climate change. In addition, his Heroes of Peace installation, in collaboration with Swarovski, incorporates projections and holograms of Nobel Peace Prize winners and other individuals devoted to peace, including John Lennon, Nelson Mandela, and Pablo Picasso.

André Heller with his inflatable café. Luna Luna, Hamburg, Germany, June-July, 1987.

In 1974, Heller devised the initial plans for Luna Luna, which he described as a Gesamtkunstwerk or “total work of art” that combined visual art, music, theater, design, circus arts, and performance. Interviewed by ARTnews a decade later, he explained that the purpose of Luna Luna was to use art and imagination to survive and fight back against an endangered world. Heller has said that his greatest achievement was accomplishing Luna Luna with limited funding: 500,000 Deutsche Marks provided by the German publication Neue Revue. For his artistic contribution to Luna Luna, Heller created an inflatable, spiked balloon sculpture, derived from one of his Flying Sculptures (1986-90), that contained a café. Additionally, he made a stage flanked by large-scale cubist sculptures of a bride and groom where visitors could “marry” whomever they chose—a political act in the 1980s when marriage was restricted to heterosexual couples. Additionally, Heller created carnival cut-outs of celebrities that visitors could pose with for pictures.

The purpose of Luna Luna was to use art and imagination to survive and fight back against an endangered world.

André Heller with cubist sculpture for wedding chapel, exhibited 1987.
Fairground view: André Heller, Inflatable café. Luna Luna, Hamburg, Germany, June-July, 1987.

Discover more about your favorite artists and attractions

In the original Luna Luna book, translated and reissued for the first time since 1987.