Imagine diving into a crystal clear water and observing all the living wonders of the water, swimming or animating several groups of human sculptures. Imagine admiring human sculptures in the most bizarre place man can find on Earth: under the sea water. Starting November you won’t have to imagine all this, since Mexico is opening the world’s largest underwater museum.

The first four concrete statues will be submerged next month, somewhere near Cancun, in the Caribbean Sea. The new Subaquatic Sculpture Museum will be part of the West Coast National Park, near the Mujeres Island. The park already attracts more than 300,000 visitors each year and the island is the perfect way to escape the tourist crush in the crowded Cancun.

Why using concrete for this sculpture and why immersing them under the water? It’s just the most recent and the wackiest idea of Jason the Caires Taylor, who’s not just an artist, but a licensed diving instructor and a experienced naturalist, as well. This is not Taylor’s first “exhibition”. The artist became famous all over the world in May 2006, when he created the world’s first underwater sculpture park in Grenada, West Indies.

The Mexican authorities intend to create along with this park, the biggest tourist attraction in the area, so that the other reef areas will remain untouched. Eventually, 400 statues will be submerged in the museum and each one of them can help the growth of algae and and invertebrates. By fortifying the natural protection of the reefs, the subaquatic forms of living will be better protected against the natural disasters like hurricanes. Each sculpture won’t be bigger than the average height of a human and it will have a base of four sq meters. Just as any other art museum, this one will also have theme-based galleries.

Image credit: 1, 2.

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