There is a forest off the coast of a quiet beach town in Cyprus that no one will ever walk through on foot. It lies eight to ten meters underwater and forms a concrete forest of trees, human figures, and silent faces looking up toward the light. This is the Museum of Underwater Sculpture Ayia Napa, MUSAN, which opened in August 2021 with 93 sculptures, some weighing up to 13 tons, dotted across the seafloor near Pernera beach. Artificial reefs, of which MUSAN is an unusual, art-driven example, have been used for marine restoration and conservation purposes for decades, according to a 2022 systematic review in PLOS ONE by researchers Emily Higgins, Anna Metaxas and Robert Scheibling, who examined artificial reef deployments across the globe. MUSAN is that effort made into art you can swim through.
A million-dollar forest with no leaves
Jason deCaires Taylor, a British sculptor, created MUSAN for about $1.1 million using materials that are inert and pH-neutral so that they do not contaminate the water. The artwork has been lowered using cranes and installed at various depths; some of the art pieces are installed right below the surface, while others sit on the sandy bottom amidst natural rock formations. Visitors can swim between the giant tree structures and pass figures of children playing hide-and-seek underwater. It is not the first time Jason deCaires Taylor has created such a project. He created the first underwater sculpture park in 2006 in Grenada, followed by the much larger project near Cancún, Mexico, with over 500 submerged sculptures. His aim remains the same: to transform a barren sandy seabed into one that supports marine life.
