It is important to know the wetland: an environment where water and land coexist.
A space that refuses to be defined, neither entirely water nor entirely land.
“For the purposes of this Convention wetlands are areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six meters.”
— Ramsar Convention, 1971
It is a habitat for migratory species, amphibians, macroinvertebrates, microalgae, bacteria and many other forms of life that take part in complex trophic networks. A zone of passage for many organisms and of deep, slow symbiosis for others. A vertical space, extending from the benthos of the submerged soil to the oxygenated soil of the surface, up to the epigeal layer where insects, birds and wind live.
The wetland is wet. Covered by that fluid which is one of the fundamental elements of life: water, which makes everything mobile and everything adherent. A dive into the swamp wraps you in slime; an ambiguous contact, of discomfort or fulfillment, depending on one's disposition, covers you with small proliferating lives. It invites you into a borderland where identity thins out and experience is shared. It is a zone that can be crossed and lived not only through the body.
The stability of a wetland is delicate, it takes time, yet at the same time it is a dynamic system: the hydrological regime, salinity, pH and turbidity change with the seasons, with the tides, with rainfall. Processes such as ecological succession shape the plant and animal community. It is a zone rich in biodiversity and beauty, considered a source of knowledge and a place of accumulation and dispersion. A site-specific installation, a space where life does not perform, but manifests itself.
You must put your whole head inside the wetland, let all the molecules, liquid and solid, cling to your face, seep into its crevices. Then keep listening. It is important to enter and remain in the wetland for as long as necessary, letting the liquid flow become an extension of the mind.
English translation of the Italian original. Read the original →