Museo Atlantico, Europe's first underwater sculpture museum, will open off the coast of Lanzarote on February 25th, 2016, in the Canary Islands, Spain.
British artist Jason deCaires Taylor produced 300 life-sized figures that will permanently live 45 feet (14 meters) below the water level. The project also includes an underwater botanical garden.
Museo Atlantico aims to draw attention to some of the world's most relevant problems: forced migrations, global warming and climate change, and conservation of natural resources.
The underwater contemporary art museum's largest installation is "The Rubicon," which comprised of 40 people walking with their eyes closed towards a gate. The moment evokes the blindness of humankind when confronted with the planet's issues.
The impressive figures were cast from real people and had to be submerged with the help of divers. "The Raft Of Lampedusa" shows us African women, men, and children in a sunken inflatable boat.
Jason deCaires Taylor was born in 1974. He graduated from the London Institute of Arts with a BA Honours in Sculpture and became a fully qualified diving instructor and underwater naturalist.
In 2006, Taylor created the world’s first underwater sculpture park off the west coast of Grenada in the West Indies. The installation os one of the Top 25 Wonders of the World by National Geographic.