Sea-bed litter will be turned into modern art, in a unique project to open one of the world’s few underwater museums off the coast of Santa Marta, northern Colombia, reports El Espectador.
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Proposed by the project director for design company Funprosperar, Jose Felipe Mesa, the plan involves some 300 divers of all levels entering the Santa Marta waters and clearing any garbage that they find littering the sea bed.
This is not, however, a simple cleaning operation.
Mesa’s idea is that the collected garbage will be delivered to a group of artists, who will use and transform the items to form new works of art.
The transformed trash will then be returned to the sea-bed, where it will be displayed in one of the world’s few underwater museums, to be be located off Santa Marta’s Taganga bay. The project is modeled on the ideas of artist Jason Taylor who carried out a similar project in Cancun, Mexico, some months ago.
According to Mesa, the project will help to raise public awareness of the necessity for marine conservation, calling attention to the problem of garbage, as well as the threats of invading species such as the lion fish on local marine ecosystems.
“With the creation of the sub-aquatic park we are looking to not only raise awareness but also to restore some coastal marine habitats,” explained Mesa.
The project director has already had his plans approved by local authorities and hopes to open the museum by the end of the year.