The Underwater Museum

"Crossing the Rubicon" 

The Museo Atlántico is Europe’s first underwater museum, located near the easternmost of the Canary Islands—Lanzarote—in the Atlantic Ocean. Conceived by British eco-sculptor, Jason deCaires Taylor, it aims to promote education and preserve and protect the marine and natural environment as an integral part of the system.

The project consists of a huge artificial reef made up of a series of pH neutral cement sculptures—without metals or other corrosive materials—which, over time, will help the marine biomass flourish and facilitate the reproduction of species on the island. There are over 300 individual sculptures distributed in 10 large installations at the bottom of the sea. The museum is nearly 40 ft. deep and covers 26,000 square feet of ocean floor space. DeCaires Taylor introduced the project as a means to “represent an entry point to a different world and promote a better understanding of our precious marine environment and of how much we depend on it.”

The museum took two years to complete and the first parts, installed in February 2016, have already seen increased frequencies of angel sharks, shoals of barracuda and sardines, octopus, marine sponges and the occasional butterfly stingray.

The project installations include a 110 ton and nearly 100 foot-long wall; the sculpture of a botanic garden that makes reference to the local flora and fauna, and a set of 200 real size human figures that make up a human whirlwind. All the pieces have been designed to adapt to the endemic marine life.

"Crossing the Rubicon"

“Crossing the Rubicon consists of a group of 35 figures walking towards an underwater wall and entrance, a boundary between two realities and a portal to the Atlantic Ocean. The wall, which is part industrial, part organic, stretches 30 metres long and 4 metres high and contains a single rectangular doorway at its centre. To cross the Rubicon is to pass a point of no return. The work aims to mark 2017 as a pivotal moment, a line in the sand and reminder that our world’s oceans and climate are changing and we need to take urgent action before its too late.”

"The Human Gyre"

“The last exhibit in Museo Atlantico is the Human Gyre, over 200 life-size figurative works creating a vast circular formation or gyre. Consisting of various models of all ages and from all walks of life, the positioning of the figures constructs a complex reef formation for marine species to inhabit and is a poignant statement for visitors to take with them at the end of the tour.”

This isn’t Jason deCaires Taylor’s first underwater museum. He has previously teamed up with officials and conservationists on two sites in the Carribean Sea. The first, off the Coast of Isla Mujeres near Cancun, MUSA (Museo Subacuático de Arte) was created with the hope of undoing the accumulated damage to the marine environment from nearly 800,000 yearly visitors to the area. The underwater sculpture park there boasts 500 permanent life-sized and monumental sculptures and can be accessed three ways: snorkeling, scuba diving, or glass bottom and jungle boat tours for the shallow exhibits.

DeCaires Taylor also helped to create the Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park Located on the west coast of Grenada just north of the capital city of St George's in Molinere Bay in Grenada's newly declared Marine Protected Area. As artificial reefs, these sculptures are proving highly successful so far in attracting a stunning array of varied marine life. In doing so and attracting visitors, they have indeed fulfilled a role in easing the environmental pressure on other reefs in the locality.

The sculptor has explained that several of the monumental installations are organized to draw attention to issues such as migration, climate change and conservation.

DeCaires Taylor also helped to create the Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park Located on the west coast of Grenada just north of the capital city of St George's in Molinere Bay in Grenada's newly declared Marine Protected Area. As artificial reefs, these sculptures are proving highly successful so far in attracting a stunning array of varied marine life. In doing so and attracting visitors, they have indeed fulfilled a role in easing the environmental pressure on other reefs in the locality.

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All photos by Jason deCaires Taylor / CCT Lanzarote

This article appeared in the Glassing Magazine September 2017 issue.