An underwater sculpture garden is being put in place in the waters off the island of Lanzarote in Spain’s Canary Islands. The statues, by British artist Jason deCaires Taylor, are designed to attract and eventually be covered by plant and animal life, as seen below. It’s said to represent the relationship between humans and nature.
While it’s a first for a European country, the idea isn’t quite new: Taylor has also created underwater installations off Cancun, Mexico and Grenada in the West Indies. The picture below is from the Grenada installation. Visitors can tour the museum by scuba-diving, or on a glass-bottom boat.
Lanzarote is hopeful, in the words of the local council president, that the attraction will “open a door to the ocean that strengthens our position as a unique tourist destination and makes us much stronger and more competitive compared to other tourist destinations nearby.”
The sculptures themselves represent a wide variety of scenes, including a couple taking a selfie, and a multi-part installation “The Raft of Lampedusa,” representing the struggle of refugees crossing the Mediterranean.
