The DATA TUNNEL installation generates nature-inspired forms in real time: botanical textures, ocean movements, and atmospheric rhythms become dynamic digital flows. The work is based on the Large Nature Model , an artificial intelligence trained on millions of visual and audio data points collected from real ecosystems according to ethical criteria. The algorithms do not imitate nature, but rather reveal aspects of it that are normally imperceptible, translating environmental data into an accessible aesthetic experience.
The gallery is conceived as an immersive journey where AI images flow across LED surfaces, engaging with the historic architecture and transforming the passageway into an environment of contemplation.
The history of the site, known as Galleria Bombi, dates back to Carlo Coronini, mayor of Gorizia in the second half of the 19th century, who was the first to envision a tunnel under the Castle to reach the animal market at Rafut. Excavations began in 1943, and the tunnel was used as an air raid shelter; work, suspended due to the war, resumed in 1949 and was completed in 1950. In the 1950s, it was inaugurated as a link between the two parts of the city and dedicated to Giorgio Bombi, who served as mayor several times and was appointed senator in 1920. For decades, it served as a pedestrian and bicycle passage for Italian and Slovenian citizens. After a period of closure and renovations, it has been reborn with an urban regeneration project.
The renovation has given life to the DAG – Digital Art Gallery, featuring a latest-generation curved LED Wall: approximately 1000 m² of surface area and almost 100 meters of visual continuity in the central section.
The first work in the DAG, the installation DATA TUNNEL, is by Refik Anadol (Istanbul, 1985), a pioneer of AI-generated art. Head of Refik Anadol Studio in Los Angeles, he teaches at UCLA and has exhibited at MoMA, the Centre Pompidou, the Serpentine Galleries, Palazzo Strozzi, and Sphere in Las Vegas.
The Gorizia DAG will be inaugurated at 5:30 pm on Tuesday, December 16, in the presence of Italian and Slovenian authorities.
The first public admissions will follow at 7:00 PM and 7:30 PM, by reservation. Further information will be released in the coming days.
