THE UNDERWATER MUSEUM BY JASON DECAIRES TAYLOR. FROM ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES TO DIALOGUES ABOUT ART

Abstract

The article highlights topical issues in the development of new museums on the example of the work of Jason deCaires Taylor — the creator of a variety of underwater expositions: Museo Atlántico — a sculpture museum at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Lanzarote, which is part of the Canary Islands; the MUSA Underwater Museum in Cancun off the coast of Mexico; a museum off the coast of Cannes on the French Riviera, and others. New underwater park-museums immediately attract a lot of attention from specialists and the general public around the world; however, the largest number of comments are related to the topic of ecology, issues of harmless technologies. Commenting on his sculptural works, it is this that Taylor emphasises, prioritising this aspect. The artistic image of the works remains outside the discussion. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the basis of Taylor’s creative method is not the creation of an original plastic form but a banal copying by making plaster moulds of living people, frozen at the artist’s request in one position or another. However, further, the artist combines copies into complex multi-figure compositions, and here, they acquire artistic meaning and emotional intensity. The article draws much attention to the inclusion of contemporary art in the general historical context of the cultural space. Dialogues in art is a broad topic that received a special meaning in the work of artists of the 20th 21st centuries. It presupposes the presence of an extraordinary situation, implying not only formal similarities between works. No less important is the underlined new context through which the ideas and images, meanings and differences of the works are interpreted. The author of the article highlights these issues on the examples of Taylor’s creative dialogues with T. Géricault and G. Vigeland.