Tunnel Tales is a site-specific architectural installation created by Roberto Paci Dalò in Gothenburg (Sweden) in 2013. It is a work commissioned to the artist by GIBCA, the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art. Tunnel Tales was initially conceived as a temporary intervention of sound art, but then became a permanent installation, as well as a city exhibition space still in use.

Tunnel Tales is the name that Roberto Paci Dalò chooses for the installation he created in the pedestrian gallery that connects the city of Gothenburg to that of Klippan. The gallery is also located near the Röda Sten Konsthall, a contemporary art center located near the port of Gothenburg, so it is very popular because it also connects various parts of the city. Roberto Paci Dalò transforms it into Tunnel Tales, an immersive space, familiar and mysterious at the same time, made of the sounds of the people who cross it every day. Tunnel Tales also becomes an exhibition space for sound art.

"The stories of the tunnel"

Roberto Paci Dalò is invited to the Gothenburg Biennial by the curator Katerina Gregos, who proposes him to create a work of urban art for the city that hosts the artistic event. It is a question of giving new vitality to an urban place very close to the contemporary art center located near the port of Gothenburg, the Röda Sten Konsthall. The location chosen is a busy pedestrian gallery that connects Gothenburg to the city of Klippan. After the inspections, the artist chooses to “redesign” the design and function of this pedestrian gallery through light, sound and colour. Dalò collaborates with the communities living nearby for the realization. The materials he uses are all local. He records the sounds of everyday life like the choirs of a nearby church, which he mixes with other urban noises. The result is the sound fabric of the installation, Tunnel Tales, “the stories of the tunnel”, mysterious but strangely familiar at the same time.

Urban exhibition space

After the intervention of Roberto Paci Dalò, Tunnel Tales also becomes a city exhibition space. Tunnel Tales now hosts various sound art exhibitions. It recently hosted the sound work Diskreta Ljud, by artist Mikael Bojén (Gothenburg, Sweden 1954), which in turn seeks the synthesis of installation and surrounding sound landscape.