Like a small army of specters, their rock silhouettes are outlined at the bottom of the water. In the Colombian Caribbean, a curious underwater museum intends to help protect coral reefs threatened by tourism and climate change.
Twenty-five statues up to 1.5 m high attract divers who venture into the blue waters of the heavenly Isla Fuerte, a 3 km2 island with 3,000 souls in the Bolivar department. Between six and eight meters below the waves, their pre-Columbian style and the abundance of coral that covers them give them the appearance of thousand-year-old wrecks.
“When I noticed the deterioration of the island’s natural reefs, I saw in this artistic project a possibility of protecting and enhancing the life of the corals,” Tatiana Orrego, creator of this initiative in 2018, tells AFP known as MUSZIF.
The sculptures are now a refuge for coral reefs, which have been damaged over the years by tourism and rising water temperatures.
And under the sea, pieces created by two local sculptors or potters become an “ideal substrate” for new corals to grow, Orrego says.
Since the start of the year, the world has suffered a massive bleaching event due to record ocean temperatures, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Colombia has a coral area equivalent to 100,000 football fields. However, 70% have already lost their colors, according to the Ministry of the Environment.
At the beginning, the creator of this museum like no other – the first underwater museum in Colombia – “sown” pieces of coral on the clay sculptures to start the process. Then the corals began to spontaneously colonize the statues, she notes with satisfaction.
Colorful spots cover the figures of pre-Columbian chiefs and deities, between which multicolored fish zigzag.
Inspired by the works that British sculptor Jason Taylor submerged off the coast of Mexico, Ms. Orrego sought out local artists to create her own underwater museum.
This is how she met Hugo Osorio and Pedro Fuentes, local potters of indigenous origin, specialized in shaping the mud that they extract by hand from a neighboring swamp, located about sixty kilometers from ‘Isla Fuerte.
Their sculptures imitate the creations of the Zenu people, who inhabited this part of the Colombian Caribbean before the Spanish conquest.
“Our ancestors were also engaged in pottery. It all comes from our roots […] My mother also makes little figurines,” explains Mr. Fuentes, 48, as he molds black clay mixed with sand.
“We continue to keep this culture alive so that it is not lost,” boasts Mr. Osorio, 59 years old.
Their “idols” and other figures evoke motherhood, hunting and the search for firewood, as the Zenu did, they explain, recalling pieces found during the archaeological excavations in which they participated in their youth in the hills which surround the marsh.
They confess to having sold hundreds of pre-Columbian objects to merchants who then offered them at exorbitant prices in Bogota or abroad.
“It’s a great sadness. Our heritage has been lost. We are trying to recover it, but it is no longer possible,” regrets Hugo Osorio.
The museum currently welcomes just over 2,000 visitors per year, including tourists, divers and freediving enthusiasts.
It is an “alternative space to welcome tourists and not overload the natural reefs, which already are,” adds Ms. Orrego.
In places like Isla Fuerte, where tourism has grown exponentially in recent years, human actions further threaten the corals.
Some curious people tear off pieces of coral to bring them to the surface, elsewhere the damage is caused by involuntary gestures and flapping of palms which damage this fragile ecosystem. “People don’t understand that coral is a living thing.”
