Theme park · Hammamet, Tunisia · 2018

King Kong at Carthageland.

We contributed to building the giant scenographic King Kong that today dominates the amusement park of Hammamet in Tunisia — some eight metres of sculpture, perched above the coaster at the entrance of the attraction.

Story

One act

An eight-metre
King Kong.

Carthageland is the themed amusement park of Hammamet, on the coast of Tunisia — a Phoenician-Carthaginian setting with towers, walls and moon-shaped arches. In 2018 the park decided to add an iconic attraction with a large scenographic King Kong above the entrance coaster, a direct reference to the myth of the giant gorilla that gives the attraction its identity.

We contributed to building this monumental sculpture in our workshop. The finished piece weighs several tonnes and stands about eight metres tall — just look at the person standing next to it in the build photos to grasp the scale.

The process: first the full carving in expanded polystyrene, starting from the large volumes (body, legs, arms, head) and refining down to detail (fur in individually carved tufts, inset eyes, teeth, tongue, claws). Then the stiffening with layered fibreglass, and finally the spray metallic black finish — the gorilla's skin that looks like oiled plush.

Photos from our archive show the piece in our workshop yard before delivery: seated on the fake-stone boulder base, arms slightly forward, jaws open, red eyes lit up. Ready for the cargo transport to the port of Tunisia.

A second stage of the build also shows the hands still in raw white polystyrene inside the warehouse — two large separate sculptures, carved on top of the main work and then attached to the body.

King Kong in the yard, a person beside it for scale

Another angle of King Kong in the yard: low-angle view emphasising the mass of the sculpture, muscular arms reaching out from the sides, wide-open jaws with teeth, fur carved in tufts across the whole body, the fake-stone base on which it sits, the Tunisian sky in the background — Front low-angle view, before transport

Behind the scenes

Eight metres of gorilla,
carved by hand.

A monumental sculpture for a theme park has to hold two opposing things at once: the fur detail within arm's reach of the visitor and the resistance to twenty years of North African sun overhead.

The polystyrene volumes

King Kong starts from a mass block of expanded polystyrene roughed out with a hot wire for the large volumes — body, legs, arms, head — and then refined by hand with rasps and half-moon blades. The carving of the fur in individually sculpted tufts is done with small chisels across the entire surface of the piece, because an eight-metre gorilla has to look furry, not smooth.

The fibreglass shell

Over the polystyrene, a fibreglass skin with glass mat and polyester resin closes the piece: it gives it the rigidity for the cargo transport (sea and cranes), the resistance to winds and salt of the Tunisian coast, the soundness for the on-site mounting above the park's coaster at eight metres high, on view to the public every day of the year.

The black metallic finish

The paint is a metallic spray black — automotive-grade for the Maghreb sun — with small glazes of dark grey in the relief of the tufts. The eye is in glossy red lacquer, the tongue and gums in vivid red, the white teeth in fake ceramic. The gorilla's skin looks like oiled plush — the "King Kong" that the park's art direction wants to see.

~8 m

the height of the finished sculpture

3 months

of build — March, April, May 2018

Cargo

sea transport to the port of Tunisia

Tech sheet

All production data

Type: Monumental scenographic sculpture for amusement park
Client: Carthageland · amusement park · Hammamet · Tunisia
Build period: March — May 2018 · full build in our workshops in Marino
Subject: King Kong seated on a fake-stone boulder · arms forward, jaws open, red eyes lit
Height: About eight metres of finished sculpture
Techniques: Hand-carved expanded polystyrene for the volumes · layered fibreglass stiffening · spray metallic black finish · base in grey fake stone
Logistics: Cargo transport from an Italian port to the port of Tunisia · final on-site assembly above the park's coaster
Our role: Contribution to the monumental sculpture — carving, stiffening, polychrome finishing, delivery ready for installation in the park
Second life: Sculpture still on view at the Carthageland park in Hammamet above the entrance coaster — King Kong remains the symbol of the attraction

Other work for theme parks

Walibi · Bollywood area — themed India for a European park
Cinecittà World — the Italian cinema park in Rome
Rainbow MagicLand — the Winx park in Valmontone
Miragica — the park of wishes in Puglia
Gardaland Resort — the themed hotels on Lake Garda
Luneur Park — the historic park of Rome

Second life

From the cargo
to the symbol of the park.

King Kong travels by sea to the port of Tunisia in the summer of 2018, gets mounted on-site above the park's entrance coaster, and since then has been the visual symbol of Carthageland. It is the piece visitors frame as they arrive, the one that closes the park's souvenir photos, the subject of the coaster's promotional material.

For us it's proof of how Italian monumental sculpture remains one of our strong suits for export: our craft also covers pieces that live twenty years or more in attractions far from Italy, from the eastern Mediterranean to the Gulf countries, from European theme parks to those of the Maghreb.