In Auckland, the company Ghella is constructing the Central Interceptor, the longest hydraulic tunnel in New Zealand’s history. This monumental infrastructure is designed to prevent water pollution and reduce stormwater overflows by up to 80%.
Within this narrative, Giulia Parlato turns her gaze to the earth, to what happens when it is unearthed, shifted, and transported. For her, each movement of soil becomes an archaeological and poetic gesture, capable of revealing submerged memories, forgotten layers, and fragments of stories preserved underground.
The tunnel is not only a remarkable feat of engineering. It is also a work of human intellect, contributing to the reconstruction of collective memory.
Nautilus explores the tunnel’s magical dimension, as if it were a kind of underwater time machine. Beyond its technical purpose, the excavation takes on a deeper meaning. Prehistoric marine creatures, unearthed from the depths of the Pacific Ocean, are being donated to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. At the same time, the extracted earth is being used to help reconstruct the volcanic landscape of the nearby sacred island of Puketutu, long altered by human activity.
In this way, the excavation is transformed. It gains a new mission: to return the landscape to the community.
