Beiruting News

Installation began on Museo Atlantico - the latest project of underwater sculptor James deCaires Taylor - this week, 14 meters underwater in Lanzarote, one of the Spain's Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa. Taylor, whose creations have spanned the waters from the Bahamas to London, calls it the first underwater contemporary art museum in Europe and the Atlantic Ocean.
The "museum" will consist of several different installations. The first, "The Raft of Lampedusa," shows a group of people huddled in a raft in an homage to French Romantic painter Théodore Géricault's painting "The Raft of the Medusa." The piece references Europe's current refugee crisis, according to a statement on the project.
"The work is not intended as a tribute or memorial to the many lives lost but as a stark reminder of the collective responsibility of our now global community," Taylor wrote.
The museum's main installation, titled "Rubicon," gathers a collection of 35 people in contemporary clothing who are walking toward a gate - "a point of no return or a portal to another world," Taylor wrote. The figures appear vacant, unaware of the gate that lies ahead of them, a scene meant to raise awareness of environmental threats to the ocean. At least one pair is taking a selfie.
Taylor uses marine-grade cement with pH-neutral concrete that is nontoxic to local wildlife, and over time the statues increase marine biomass by accumulating coral on their surfaces. Each piece has a foundation plate that can be drilled and anchored to the sea floor. "They're designed to not move in strong currents or storms, so they have to be very solid," he told NewsHour.
Then, he works with a team of divers to install them. Taylor provided video of this week's installation process off the coast of Lanzarote, whose government commissioned and financed the project.
pbs.org