Malena Szlam
︎ www.malenaszlam.com/ ︎︎︎
Malena Szlam is a Chilean artist and filmmaker based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. Her films, installations, and photographs explore embodied perception and the material and affective dimensions of analogue film process. Szlam's work gives form to lyrical approximations of the natural world. Attentive to the geopolitics of natural phenomena, her recent work focuses on geology, earth science, and volcanology.
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ARCHIPELAGO OF EARTHEN BONES — TO BUNY
2024 / DCP / color / sound / 1 screen / 20' 00
“Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya” traces alternative cartographies of time, rooted in the very geologic formations of our planet. Examining volcanic time as a means to comprehend and express Earth’s geological history, the film seeks a sensing and knowing that recognizes the divergent nature of the time scales that surround us. From almost instantaneous catastrophic ruptures to the formation of mountains over millions of years, the film invites us to become immersed in time.
Using tectonic plates as imaginary maps, Szlam films a constellation of ancient landforms, from the eroded vestiges of volcanic activity to the relics of the Gondwana Rainforest, tracing a path along the central eastern ranges of Australia, which were illuminated in the afterglows of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai eruption. Szlam films on 16mm and edits in-camera, creating dazzling landscapes through multiple exposures. The vibrations, murmurings and signals of Earth form the soundscape composed by Australian artist Lawrence English. “Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya” evokes the layered histories of Mount Beerwah to the titular Bunya Mountains, rendering a unique perspective on the shifting faces of our environments.
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners as custodians and knowledge keepers of the unceded lands throughout Australia. We recognise their continuous connection to country and extend our respect to Aboriginal and Zenadth Kes Islander peoples and to Elders past, present and future. This work was created across the lands of the Turrbal, Yuggera, Jinibara, Gubbi Gubbi, Wakka Wakka, Jarowair, Barrumgum, Quandamooka and Butchulla Peoples.
Cinematography, Camera, Editing: Malena Szlam
Sound Recording and Composition: Lawrence English
Production: John Edmond
ALTIPLANO
(2018 / 35mm / color / sound / 1 screen / 15' 30)Filmed in the Andean Mountains in the traditional lands of the Atacameño, Aymara, and Calchaquí-Diaguita in Northern Chile and Northwest Argentina, ALTIPLANO takes place within a geological universe of ancestral salt flats, volcanic deserts, and coloured lakes. Fusing earth with sky, day with night, heartbeat with mountain, and mineral with iridescent cloud, ALTIPLANO reveals a vibrating landscape in which a bright blue sun forever threatens to eclipse a blood-red moon.
Coupled with a soundscape generated from infrasound recordings of volcanoes, geysers, Chilean blue whales, and more, ALTIPLANO creates evocative visual rhythms through the clash of color and form. Landscapes pulse and stutter, transmuting into spaces that exist in a multitude of times simultaneously. Located at the heart of a natural ecosystem threatened by a century of saltpeter and nitrate mining practices, and recent geothermic exploitation, ALTIPLANO reveals an ancient land standing witness to all that is, was, and will be.
MORFOLOGÍA DE UN SUEÑO - Morphology of a Dream
2015-2018 / 16mm / color / silent / 1 screen / 5' 30MORFOLOGÍA DE UN SUEÑO (MORPHOLOGY OF A DREAM) is a visual study of the rhythms of sleep cycles during the phase of rapid eye movement. Filmed in the forest in Colorado and Quebec, MORPHOLOGY OF A DREAM explores an oneiric world that expresses place and memory in a fleeting succession of colors and sensations hovering between the « real » and abstract worlds.
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