Twenty two concrete cars sit 20 feet below the surface as a new reef that blends urban critique with ecological restoration.
Overview
Leandro Erlich’s CONCRETE CORAL has been installed as part of the ReefLine, a seven mile underwater sculpture park off Miami Beach. The project places 22 life sized car sculptures on the seafloor to act as an artificial reef that will be seeded with thousands of coral fragments. The work reframes symbols of congestion and pollution into infrastructure for marine life while making a poetic statement about regeneration.
Installation Details
The cars were cast in marine grade, pH neutral concrete engineered to encourage coral attachment. Each sculpture can weigh up to 16 tons and was produced using digitally modeled forms routed into large 3D printed molds to preserve Erlich’s uncanny realism. The vehicles are arranged in a snaking formation that echoes a traffic jam and were tested to withstand simulated hurricane strength conditions before final placement.
Access and Impact
During Miami Art Week visitors can access the site by low impact electric paddleboards and find the location marked by a pastel toned meditation buoy by Andrés Reisinger. The site hosts coral restoration workshops and guided talks from the Floating Marine Learning Center. As a permanent installment on ReefLine, CONCRETE CORAL functions both as public art and as a living intervention aimed at restoring habitat and sparking conversation about the relationship between cities and the sea.
