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Foto forum - Arcipelago Verticale
Opening on 10 March 2026 at 7:00 PM
Photography, Illustrations and Projects: Beatrice Citterio, Francesco Marinelli (Dolomiti Contemporanee), Jonathan Coen, Laboratorio OffTopic, Leonhard Angerer, Manuel Riz, Marco Gasparic (Broken Window Theory), Rob Hornstra, studentesse e studenti dei seminari di fotografia Bauer Anatomia e Dinamica di un Territorio in collaborazione con Dolomiti Contemporanee e TeSAF (UniPa), Teresa de Toni (Dolomiti Contemporanee), Till Aufschlanger (Broken Window Theory), Voci di Cortina.
In today’s climate reality, where Alpine regions are warming twice as fast as the lowlands and snow cover is steadily declining, the Winter Olympic Games, hailed as “the most widespread and sustainable ever”, are unfolding across some 22,000 km², spanning vastly different landscapes and ecosystems: from Milan to Cortina d’Ampezzo, from Bormio and Livigno to Val di Fiemme, and all the way to Antholz and Verona, with public investments exceeding €6 billion.
But what does an event of this scale mean for the territories hosting it? And can we truly call it socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable? Through a visual exploration of the Winter Olympic model and its legacy, Arcipelago Verticale challenges both its practices and the narratives surrounding it, exposing a structural dependence on local resources, both natural and cultural. At the core lies a “water archipelago” essential to the economic model, expanding year after year above ski slopes to guarantee artificial snow, channelling resources and public funds into a few scattered nodes across the Alps and Dolomites, regions whose natural cycles began millions of years ago. The proliferation of these infrastructures has created a fragmented geography: technical surfaces and overexploited areas are connected but territorially discontinuous. Artificial basins – three of which were constructed for the Winter Olympics – function as islands, as do the hundreds of construction sites scattered along the Alpine arc at various elevations, whether ongoing, completed, or still in the planning phase. Some are not expected to be completed until 2032.
The archipelago metaphor also captures the political distance between decision-makers and local communities, a gap widened by the urgency of the Olympic agenda, which left residents little room to engage with those shaping their own territory. This has undermined both the opportunity to direct substantial investments toward facilities and systems that genuinely needed them and the fundamental right of communities to be informed and to have a say in the transformations affecting their lives.
Beatrice Citterio
Photography, Illustrations and Projects: Beatrice Citterio, Francesco Marinelli (Dolomiti Contemporanee), Jonathan Coen, Laboratorio OffTopic, Leonhard Angerer, Manuel Riz, Marco Gasparic (Broken Window Theory), Rob Hornstra, studentesse e studenti dei seminari di fotografia Bauer Anatomia e Dinamica di un Territorio in collaborazione con Dolomiti Contemporanee e TeSAF (UniPa), Teresa de Toni (Dolomiti Contemporanee), Till Aufschlanger (Broken Window Theory), Voci di Cortina.
In today’s climate reality, where Alpine regions are warming twice as fast as the lowlands and snow cover is steadily declining, the Winter Olympic Games, hailed as “the most widespread and sustainable ever”, are unfolding across some 22,000 km², spanning vastly different landscapes and ecosystems: from Milan to Cortina d’Ampezzo, from Bormio and Livigno to Val di Fiemme, and all the way to Antholz and Verona, with public investments exceeding €6 billion.
But what does an event of this scale mean for the territories hosting it? And can we truly call it socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable? Through a visual exploration of the Winter Olympic model and its legacy, Arcipelago Verticale challenges both its practices and the narratives surrounding it, exposing a structural dependence on local resources, both natural and cultural. At the core lies a “water archipelago” essential to the economic model, expanding year after year above ski slopes to guarantee artificial snow, channelling resources and public funds into a few scattered nodes across the Alps and Dolomites, regions whose natural cycles began millions of years ago. The proliferation of these infrastructures has created a fragmented geography: technical surfaces and overexploited areas are connected but territorially discontinuous. Artificial basins – three of which were constructed for the Winter Olympics – function as islands, as do the hundreds of construction sites scattered along the Alpine arc at various elevations, whether ongoing, completed, or still in the planning phase. Some are not expected to be completed until 2032.
The archipelago metaphor also captures the political distance between decision-makers and local communities, a gap widened by the urgency of the Olympic agenda, which left residents little room to engage with those shaping their own territory. This has undermined both the opportunity to direct substantial investments toward facilities and systems that genuinely needed them and the fundamental right of communities to be informed and to have a say in the transformations affecting their lives.
Beatrice Citterio
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