Sculptures as far as the eye can see. But you cannot marvel at them in a museum but on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. So better you wear your diving goggles to take a closer look. Museo Atlántico, the amazing underwater world is situated 14 metres deep down pristine waters near the south coast of Lanzarote. The British sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor has realised a mysterious world on the bottom of the sea that combines art, sustainability and therewith the protection of the environment.
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Sculptures for a sound nature
The creation of the monumental project with nearly 300 life-size sculptures has taken two years to complete. It aims to create a strong visual dialogue between art and nature. It has been designed from a conservationist approach aiming to create a large scale of artificial reef. The first parts, installed beginning 2016, have already experienced a significant increase in the levels of generation and abundance of species, and are already being frequented by angel sharks, shoals of barracuda and sardines, octopus, marine sponges and the occasional butterfly stingray.
Eco-friendly materials
The museum is built with neutral pH materials that respect the environment. All pieces have been designed to adapt to the endemic marine life. The installations include a 100-ton heavy and 30-metre long wall, the sculpture of a botanic garden that makes reference to the local flora and fauna and a set of 200 life-sized human figures.
A 30-metre long underwater wall
The wall, which is partly industrial, partly organic stretches 30 metres long and four metres high. It contains a single rectangular doorway at its centre. The wall is intended to be a monument to absurdity, a dysfunctional barrier in the middle of a vast fluid, three-dimensional space, which can be bypassed in any direction. It emphasises that the notions of ownership and territories are irrelevant to the natural world. In times of increasing patriotism and protectionism the wall aims to remind us that we cannot segregate our oceans, air, climate or wildlife as we do our land and possessions.
Green Varnish, designed by landscape architecture firm Nomad Studio, was the first installation of its kind, located in the courtyard of CAM in Saint Louis, with the aim of transforming and altering the space. A green fabric made up of thousands of plants floated in the space, symbolically covering the inconvenient facts of society. The structure occupied approximately 200 square meters and turned the courtyard into an exuberant sculpture filled with life. It was a natural tapestry that played with the architectural space, while provoking it.
The founding partners of Nomad Studio, William E. Roberts and Laura Santín, explored the necessity of hiding inconvenient realities with politically correct beauty: “Deep inside the collective awareness, it is clear we need to overcome major changes in order to cope with climate change. Currently, our response is completely reactionary and we mainly express it in two different manners: pure rejection or some form of green shift that enables us to continue business as usual.”
William and Laura are known for their intuitive approach of combining contemporary art and design with natural elements. Their work, which has been internationally awarded, has mainly focused on projects closely related to the social and environmental impact of landscape architecture.
With Green Varnish Nomad Studio is making an ironic gesture towards the ‘greening’ trend camouflaged beneath the mantra of sustainability, resilience and other words, which are often abused in the current world of design. The installation was displayed in September in Saint Louis, Mississippi. The second installation “2nd Act” by Nomad Studio will be exhibited in the CAM from May to September 2016.
