A haunting underwater sculpture depicting migrants on board a sunken inflatable boat has been unveiled by a British artist. As a part of a new underwater art museum called ‘Museo Atlantico’ off the coast of Spain, Jason deCaires Taylor a British artist installed the sculpture. It has been designed to draw parallels with the plight of thousands of migrants. Those migrants who risk their lives daily escaping the Syrian war zone and other countries. Trying to cross the Mediterranean to enter Europe, more than 2,000 migrants are estimated to have d!ed in the last year. Museo Atlantico is the first underwater contemporary art museum in Europe and the Atlantic Ocean and Jason deCaires Taylor has now installed the first phase of sculptures there.
The museum is 14 meters below the surface of water and it will be open until the end of the month. The artist said, ‘The Raft of Lampedusa is a harrowing depiction of the ongoing humanitarian crisis, referencing French Romantic painter Théodore Géricault’s work: The Raft of the Medusa. Drawing parallels between the abandonment suffered by sailors in his shipwreck scene and the current refugee crisis, 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. The project drawing on the dialogue between art and nature is designed on a conversational level to create a large scale artificial reef to aggregate local fish species and increase marine biomass whilst, on the other hand, to raise awareness to current threats facing the world’s oceans.’
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