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Sculptor, photographer, diver, and naturalist, Jason deCaires Taylor has been creating series of amazing underwater art for 15 years. Sculptures on the ocean floor not only attract divers, swimmers and snorkellers, but also become

a magnet for marine life

. This has happened in Lanzarote, where five years ago the British created the first underwater museum in Europe. This year he had time to anchor huge faces off the coast of Cannes to the foundations of the sea and, this same summer, to plant a whole forest off those of Cyprus.

The new underwater museum of the Mediterranean is made up of

93 sculptures

located at various depths in

Aiya Napa

, a popular area of ​​turquoise beaches that are among the best on the continent, according to this year's ranking from Tripadvisor.

About 200 meters from the coast, the museum has a pier that juts out into the sea and two floating platforms from which you can swim or dive to explore the Taylor trees, among which you can also discover several children playing games. hideaway in this aquatic forest.

The forest on the seabed.

"I wanted to try something different," says the sculptor from the UK on the other end of the phone.

Forests are

hotbeds of diversity

and I wanted to do something similar underwater: turn a barren area of ​​the seabed into a place where many different species could live underwater. "

Taylor's installations, already in many corners of the world, can be provocative, but beyond sensations or tastes, it has a dimension that goes beyond.

They are designed to generate a

large-scale artificial reef

.

Over time, the sculptures become a playground for thousands of species.

"Years later these places are radically different," emphasizes Taylor.

The Briton remembers one of his largest museums, that of Cancun, Mexico, with more than 400 sculptures.

"When I installed them in 2009 in the middle of the sand there was not a living being. Today there are

hundreds of

hard and soft

corals

, sponges, turtles, lobsters and thousands of fish. It has completely changed."

Jason deCaires Taylor.

Even in places like Lanzarote, where the Museo Atlántico was born in 2017, the change has been astonishing. Taylor says that since it is not a tropical region, he was not sure what animal life would settle there. It is now frequented by angel sharks and many other types of marine creatures. "Many times it surprises me. I hope to see a lot and there is nothing. But

I return two days later and there are thousands of fish

."

The sculptor, who lived in Lanzarote for five years, cites an analysis by the University of Gran Canaria in which it is mentioned that biomass has increased by 200%.

These data have transformed his opinion about what art means over the years.

"I see things differently. You may like the pieces or not, that's completely subjective. But the fact that they create life is much more relevant than all that."

Along with Cancun and Lanzarote, Taylor's great work is the first he made, a sculpture park on the Caribbean island of Granada that, according to National Geographic, is

one of the 25 marine wonders of the world

.

Since that first, materials have been improving to reduce their carbon footprint.

And also the technique.

The map of the sculptures.MUSAN / @JASON DECAIRES TAYLOR

The Briton works with textures to make it easier for corals to grow, although he admits that it is almost always a matter of luck.

"What I do is create a certain texture in a specific part of the sculptures so that certain creatures stick to them or I place them in certain areas with currents where the sun will give them to help them grow ... Sometimes I plant corals and certain species to dictate

what kinds of organisms are

going to grow. I have some control, but at the same time, this is like seeds floating in the air. You never know where they are going to land. "

Lovers of diving or snorkelling, or simply, the curious who come to Cyprus, with 300 days of sunshine a year, will have to wait to see the marine life, but from now on they can attend the underwater show that is already in progress. yes these sculptures.

And above all, this way of facing art.

As Taylor explains, everything underwater takes on another nuance.

"The most basic physics is different down there because water makes colors absorb light differently and everything is magnified in water."

This not to mention the added sensation of floating.

"There is no gravity and that puts your mind in another place. It is easier to dream and that you feel more connected with the pieces and nature."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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