Snorkeling is not enough: Those who want to visit the new art museum must be able to dive and should have a PADI license in their pocket. Because the Museum of Underwater Art (MOUA) exhibits all its works on the sandy seabed at a depth of between 10 and 18 meters.
Access to the MOUA is from the water, on the sheltered John Brewer Reef, approximately 70 kilometers from Townsville, Queensland, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This reef is part of the famous Great Barrier Reef, which stretches 2,300 kilometers off the northeast coast of Australia between the 10th and 24th parallels south.
The project took four years from idea to opening on August 1st and was realized with British underwater artist Jason deCaires Taylor. The 46-year-old has already created sculptures for the waters off the coasts of the Bahamas, Grenada, Cancún and in the Thames.
His 20 artworks off Queensland are housed in a “Coral Greenhouse” made of stainless steel and constructed of special cement and pH-neutral materials. According to the will of the non-profit organization MOUA, the sculpture park should “offer divers an additional attraction on the Great Barrier Reef”.
For the artist, the museum represents “an interface between us and our underwater world”. It is “a very good way to explore the Great Barrier Reef and tell stories about the reef at the same time,” says Jason deCaries Taylor. “This is where art, tourism and marine science come together.”
Sources:
www.moua.com.au,
www.queensland.com,
https://adrenalindive.com.au,
www.underwatersculpture.com
Also read:
– Lady Elliot Island: Where the Great Barrier Reef begins
– Before and after photos: How the pandemic is sweeping Sydney’s beaches dry
– 500 million years of solitude – a journey into the mountains of South Australia