Every image in the Alterlibrary collection is intended as a quote, an excerpt of a larger discourse. But every image also stands as a matter that could undergo a series of operations and alterations. Therefore, images are renewable sources.
Operations: Extraction (photograph of a photograph printed on a catalogue) and Collection.
Image alteration: Texturing. The original image came from a printed catalogue, where it was first photographed and converted into a digital file. That digital file was then processed using a program developed by a graphic designer called Texturing, designed to extract textures from an image and generate new “visual material.” In effect, what began as a photographic source is turned into a sort of graphical fabric that can be reused for other creative purposes. This amounts to a recycling of the original visual “matter,” transforming it into a different kind of resource suitable for further design processes.
Jone Kvie's original sculptural piece combines natural materials that bear silent witness to geological and biological processes. Volcanic tuff-rock, lichens, moss, pine needles, and iron converge into a single form, suggesting a dialogue between organic growth and the elemental forces shaping our landscapes. The main structure of the sculpture is a volcanic rock collected by the artist and temporarily displaced in an exhibition space during Documenta Kassel 2022.
This image has been selected as part of an image collection titled Spaces of Coexistence in the Future, in the Past, inside one of the Alterlibrary Collections, titled Ecosystem Europe.
How could we imagine alternatives to Europe as a centre of power? Where could we speak from? Could the power to define spaces for others be the ultimate expression of authority? In a landscape where humans decide the limits of coexistence, how much space do we genuinely share with other life forms? And when we set these boundaries, are we creating opportunities for mutual existence or merely controlling access to survival?