We have been mentioned in Ryanair´s blog - Into the blue by Dee Murray.
Sunken Sculptures
I have one more aquatic adventure to go on while I’m
here, and this one goes deep. The Museo
Atlantico – Europe’s first underwater art museum – is a new underwater art
gallery, designed and created by artist Jason deCaires
Taylor. Just off the coast in Playa Blanca, it’s taking SCUBA Diving
on the island to a whole new level. It’s still being built, but there are over
80 of the planned 300 sculptures already in place in their seabed display. I’m
diving to see what’s there, accompanied by Carlos from Playa Blanca’s
excellent Lanzarote Non Stop Divers. It’s a short boat trip to the museum,
and Carlos gives me a great briefing about diving in the area as well as a
little history about the museum itself. I can’t wait to get in the water.
Visibility is good, and the shadowy figures of the
sculptures start to appear before me from about 3o metres away. They’re eerie
and beautiful, and each work represents something pertinent to modern life,
from our reliance on technology to climate change, and even a piece that
symbolises Europe’s current refugee crisis. They are still obviously sculptures
– stony grey with just a thin layer of mossy flora growing on them – and
they’re still obviously quite new in their underwater world. But these
sculptures will change.
They’re built using marine cement, which is PH
neutral. This allows coral polyps (which create ‘skeletons’ out of calcium
carbonate, and need that PH neutrality to survive) to attach themselves to
the sculptures and grow, creating a kind of artificial reef which in turn
attracts other marine life. Already there are schools of fish weaving through
the stone figures, and even an Angel Shark lurking around on the sand. In years
to come, it will be lush and colourful and full of life.
This museum is so much more than art. Like so
much of the development on Lanzarote it has been carefully designed to be
sustainable, to work with the environment, to blend in seamlessly with the
beauty of its natural surroundings, and to unobtrusively become part of the
island.
I think that’s one of the island’s biggest
selling points. For such a massively popular tourist destination, Lanzarote has
managed to remain incredibly beautiful (thank you Cesar Manriuque)! Red earth
without beach-front high rises spoiling sea-views, or ugly architecture
sticking out of its surface-of-mars landscape like sore thumbs. It’s what makes
being outside in Lanzarote cycling, swimming, surfing, diving, running, hiking
– whatever you want to do – through the volcanoes and along the stunning
coastlines such an absolute pleasure.
There are lots of places you can do these things,
but it’s nice to know you can do them somewhere as beautiful as Lanzarote.