Florence, Italy — From June 4 to 20, 2026, Rifugio Digitale presents Invisible Matter. Nahuales, Spirits and Augmented Presences, a solo exhibition by Giuliana Cunéaz, a pioneering figure of Italian Media Art. The show brings together fifteen AI-generated videos created specifically for the venue, weaving archaic symbolism with contemporary technological languages in a dialogue that spans nature, spirituality, and digital vision.
Curated by Serena Tabacchi and Rebecca Pedrazzi, with artistic direction by Laura Andreini, the exhibition is supported by FinecoBank and organized in collaboration with Forma Edizioni. The opening will take place on Thursday, June 4 at 6:30 PM, preceded by a press preview at 6:00 PM with the artist, the artistic director, and the curators in attendance.
The exhibition intertwines the two central threads of Cunéaz’s most recent research: Nahuales — guiding spirits from Maya tradition, animal-like figures tied to the relationship between nature, consciousness, and individual destiny — and Spirits — anthropomorphic, liminal presences suspended between physicality and mystery, appearance and dissolution, mirroring an inner identity that remains never fully defined.
The works on display do not merely describe an alternate world; they allow it to surface. Positioned in a threshold zone between what offers itself to the gaze and what remains to be perceived, between image and intuition, dreamlike vision and digital matter, the pieces refuse fixed resolution.
True to the unstable quality of early experiments with generative artificial intelligence, Cunéaz’s visuals are traversed by glitches, imperfections, and zones of indeterminacy — not hidden or corrected, but embraced as integral to the artist’s poetic language. She does not pursue the perfection of simulation, but rather a visual space in which a figure can appear without ever fully defining itself. The Nahuales and Spirits emerge as mutable archetypes, suspended visions between memory, imagination, and interiority, capable of restoring a deeper, quieter perceptual dimension.
In a present dominated by image overproduction, hyperconnection, and perceptual acceleration, Invisible Matter invites audiences to slow down their gaze and recognize in the invisible not an absence, but a different form of presence. The spirituality evoked by the artist is not an escape from reality but a way to rediscover a more complex and authentic relationship with nature, with mystery, and with the deepest layers of human consciousness.
In each work, the dialogue with artificial intelligence generates a territory of shared action, where human sensibility and generative unpredictability shape one another in mutual exchange.
Photo credits: Giuliana Cunéaz
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