Cyprus’s haunting new underwater sculpture park – in pictures

Musan, a gallery of sculpture by Jason deCaires Taylor exploring our relationship with nature, has opened off Ayia Napa

Jason deCaires Taylor and Costas Constantinou

Main image: Jason deCiares Taylor’s Underwater Forest is in a protected marine area 200 metres off the beach in about 10 metres of water Photograph: Costas Constantinou/Musan

  • The installation features figures dotted among the trees and explores the relationship between man and nature.
    The installation explores the relationship between man and nature.

  • The 93 artworks, particularly those that represent trees, are designed to attract marine life and will develop organically. Some of the tree forms float just below the surface, creating a suitable substrate for marine life at all levels.
    Tree artwork

  • Jason deCaires Taylor’s works are part of an eco-art movement in which the artwork interacts with its surroundings in an unpredictable way. Eventually the work of nature will supplant the work of the artist – and will provide food and shelter for a variety of creatures.
    more tree artworks

  • Marine life has been seriously depleted in the Mediterranean over the past 20 years and the work aims to highlight the need to rewild our oceans. Children are depicted playing in the forest, pointing their cameras at the human race, hoping for a future where the magic of nature will return.
    Children are seen playing in the forest,

  • The museum is within a marine protected area about 200 metres from Pernera beach and in water between eight and 10 metres deep, so is accessible to snorkellers, scuba divers and free divers.
    snorkellers.

  • The installation was designed to resemble a path through a dense underwater forest.
    The installation resembles a path through a dense underwater forest.

  • The forest is made from inert pH-neutral materials and aims to replicate a terrestrial forest by becoming a focal point for biodiversity.
    art like terrestrial forest

  • Hybrid trees weighing 13 tonnes were lowered into the sea.
    trees being lowered into the sea.

  • DeCaires Taylor’s work examines the impact of man on the natural world, the loss of biodiversity and climate change.
    Figures among what looks like smoke

  • One of the most striking figures from the installation.
    Figure with a tree head.
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