# 4
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 and Collection. Image alteration: none.
The Variconi Oasis is A brackish pond recognized as a wetland of international importance. This particular image is uncredited and comes from the largest public archive available to humanity: an online image search. Despite the ecological significance of this wetland, very few wide-view photographs are publicly accessible. The aerial perspective in this case—almost schematic and abstract—offers a glimpse into a protected site almost looking like a geographical map.
Invitations to contemplate
This image is part of the collection
Keep exploring
- We would ask to transform and reform the modalities of membership by which the city (cité) belongs to the state, as in a developing Europe or in international juridical structures still dominated by the inviolable rule of state sovereignty […] This should no longer be the ultimate horizon for citie …
What if everything is entangled?
Spaces of coexistence in the future, in the past.
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? The Oasi dei Variconi, a small wetland among European wetlands, highlights how seemingly peripheral areas can play a crucial role in maintaining ecological resilience across the continent.
But why are only some zones officially protected? As an easy-to-find documentary fragment of an underdepicted place (why?), this image poses questions about human agency in delineating territories for non-human life. By marking out certain lands or waters as worthy of preservation, we underscore the interdependence of species—but also the capacity to decide who benefits from these shared spaces. Labeling a location an “Oasi” (oasis) suggests refuge, yet it simultaneously reveals the power dynamics of defining which ecosystems matter and how they are curated or restricted in the name of collective survival.
of our Imagination
