HerAcademy – the learning centre in Bologna

The redevelopment of the new spaces for HerAcademy, the Corporate University established in 2011 to generate knowledge, support employee development and attract new talent, is part of the Group’s broader property enhancement programme.

The new building at the Bologna site spans three floors and has been designed with flexible layouts and furnishings to accommodate various learning needs. The aim is to provide an innovative space equipped with state-of-the-art technology to support training activities for all Group employees.

The installation titled “Evoluzioni” [”Evolutions”] was designed for the entrance hall of HerAcademy, Hera Group’s Learning Centre in Bologna, as a synaesthetic narrative of images and sound. Using an abstract and evocative visual language, the artwork unfolds across three major visual and acoustic settings that reflect three of Hera’s core elements: water, the environment, and energy.

Circularity is the central theme of the installation. It is expressed in the artwork’s continuous movement, the transformation of objects and fibres, and in the colour palette of the Group’s distinctive visual identity. In the same way, the circular approach has become a reference model for shaping the services of the future and contributing tangibly to the well-being of the area in which it operates.

The section dedicated to water features a series of different views that illustrate water’s natural dynamics: from river currents creating waves to their smooth and harmonious movement, and on to the water we use every day in our homes, representing the widespread reach of the Group’s water network. This fluidity and purity are ultimately conveyed through light, transparent fabrics, ethereal and pure.

The section dedicated to the environment shows how natural and artificial materials can transform into one another, changing shape and structure over time. Starting from semi-transparent elements such as fabrics, the scene gradually shifts to plastic and synthetic materials, which slowly metamorphose into fibres, stems and blooming structures, eventually evolving into trees that give rise to lush forests.

In the energy section, the narrative continues by exploring natural elements that symbolise the transformation and transmission of energy across the Earth tracing the path of energy from nature to human beings. From the preceding forests, clouds of vapour of various shapes emerge, which evolve into wide skies crossed by rays of light. Finally, the visual narrative shifts to a microscopic scale, where filaments of electrical energy symbolise connection and power distribution.

The installation features a selection of key data from the Hera Group, which are chosen to create a dialogue between reports from the Group’s core businesses and data related to people – employees, customers and stakeholders – regarded as the vital force behind the harmonious development of all areas within the Hera Group. The selected data, which are updated daily and visualised on a monthly basis, include peaks and troughs that alternate over time. The movement of images in the installation is directly influenced by the monthly data trends: the cyclical variation of the data generates rhythmic motion within the artwork. This is the intrinsic value of the work, whose narrative overlaps with that of the Group.

The sound component blends natural and digital elements to create abstract soundscapes capable of evoking and expressing the transformations taking place across the different sequences. Subtle, weightless atmospheres evolve over time, gently accompanying the visual narrative. The data are used to control and modulate sound elements highlighting the flow of the images.

The visual generation of the installation relies on a series of compositional frameworks that integrate Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence systems. More specifically, several conditioning maps were used. The core synthetic generative system was trained using a variety of images of waterfalls, rivers, plastic materials, stems and real flowers that merge, dissolve, recombine and transform again in a circular harmony that inspired the work’s title: “Evoluzioni - per il Pianeta, per le Persone e per la Prosperità" [“Evolutions – for the Planet, for People and for Prosperity”]. The title ties in perfectly with the concept of circularity and constant transformation – values that drive the Hera Group’s daily commitment, where every action is guided by purpose and aimed at delivering positive change to build a prosperous, sustainable and inclusive future for everyone.