MUSA Underwater Museum of Art in Cancun: Dive Into Art in Isla Mujeres, Mexico

[Judi Lynn]

Last edited Wed May 11, 2022, 07:43 AM - Edit history (1)

INTERNATIONAL 3 hours
Sheri B Doyle



In the beautiful waters of Isla Mujeres, Mexico, an underwater museum was built nine years ago in an effort to create a sustainable reef-like structure for ocean life. When I saw the MUSA online, I decided I had to dive it.

Once I was underwater, the sculptures were more breathtaking than I had even imagined. Our path first took us to a man working at a desk, complete with a desk phone, paperwork and a friendly-looking dog sitting at his feet. Each detail was perfect on the life-size objects. Next, we swam past a sculpture of an original VW bus and then on to what was the piece de resistance – a collection of 450 life-size sculptures of humans.



Photo: MusaMexico.org

Approaching the exhibit I was taken aback by the volume of statues occupying the 420-square-meter area. Moving closer, the detail on each face brought them to life. There was emotion visible in their expressions and features. It was breathtaking.



Photo: AquaWorld.com

Beautiful pink and purple corals had taken root on the statues' bodies and faces, enhancing the effect of the statues standing together, as if they were migrating to another place. Each statue was modeled after a real person the artist had pose for him. After swimming among the statues, it is truly remarkable how he captured their essence.



Photo: AquaWorld

Article:
https://30seconds.com/travel/tip/17450/MUSA-Underwater-Museum-of-Art-in-Cancun-Dive-Into-Art-in-Isla-Mujeres-Mexico#_=_

(Look for the link under the last photo, the VW Bug to go to "The Silent Evolution of MUSA
September 19, 2016
Diving Articles, Musa" )

[Easterncedar]

1. Mind blowing!

Thanks for posting this.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Here's an article about the artist: Scuba Diving Artist Jason deCaires Taylor is Transforming Coral

Scuba Diving Artist Jason deCaires Taylor is Transforming Coral Reefs Around the World
His journey from graffiti to gold has forever changed coral reef restoration.

By Alexandra Gillespie July 17, 2021



Jason deCaires Taylor poses 26 feet below the surface with sculptures in his Silent Evolution installation at Mexico's Museo Subacuático de Arte.

Courtesy Jason deCaires Taylor

Before making routine headlines as the world’s foremost underwater artist, Jason deCaires Taylor snuck around spray painting trains. Teenage graffiti, his first outdoor installations, gave way to art school in the mid-’90s. Here he spent five years hauling sculptures from site to site to observe how different settings changed the way his creations decayed and altered viewers’ relationship to his work.

These early experiments in impermeability taught the English-Guyanese artist “not to become too precious about everything; everything evolved and changed, and you could spend ages painting something, and then it would be whitewashed the next day,” he says.

Today, waves are more likely than whitewash to erase the contours of his work. With over 1,000 reef sculptures from the Gulf of Mexico to the Australian Pacific to Norwegian fjords, the sculptor has spent more than a decade catalyzing conservation through art.

“I think art plays a really, really critical role in changing our understanding of issues” like climate change, he says. “We relate to stories and we relate to experiences, much more than we do to facts and figures.”

More:
https://www.scubadiving.com/scuba-diving-artist-jason-decaires-taylor-is-transforming-coral-reefs-around-world

More images at this link from google images:

https://tinyurl.com/y8bf7p88

Thanks for your post, Easterncedar

[Easterncedar]

4. Really delightful

The stories of the creativity and drive of the people behind these installations are so heartening. Thank you Judi Lynn for sharing the extra information and for making me smile - and think! You are a treasure yourself!

[Judi Lynn]

3. Newsweek article from the beginning of the underwater museum:

America's First Underwater Art Museum Opens
BY LISA SPEAR ON 6/6/18 AT 12:32 PM EDT

Scuba divers will soon swim through an art museum in the Gulf of Mexico, the first of its kind in the United States. The permanent art exhibit is opening in late June off the Florida panhandle and it's free to anyone willing to take the plunge.

The sculptures in the exhibit at the Underwater Museum of Art are made of natural materials and will work like artificial reefs, housing sea life, on an otherwise barren and flat sandy ocean floor. Allison Wickey, one of the artists, told Newsweek that snorkelers should have no problem seeing the exhibit from the surface of the water on clear days, but it's meant to be seen 60 feet underwater at eye-level.

"You will be able to see wildlife up close. When you look down into the water you will be able to see schools of fish," she said.

The space will be transformed into a haven for wildlife, where the natural world will blend with contemporary art. As soon as the seven sculptures are carefully dropped to the seafloor, the art will be taken over by nature. For instance, a 10,000-pound concrete skull designed by Vince Tatum will attract coral.

Over time, barnacles will appear and algae will grow. Within a few years, the sculpture could be unrecognizable. Another piece of art, a hollow stainless-steel pineapple, will give small fish a place to hide out from sharks. A whole new habitat will form, Andy McAlexander from the South Walton Artificial Reef Association, told Newsweek.

More:
https://www.newsweek.com/americas-first-underwater-art-museum-opens-960433