Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya

Celestial bodies and mountain ranges conjure the rhythms of deep time. Szlam’s film finds its intensity in that which exceeds human lifespans, an excess that is neither remote nor transcendental, but omnipresent, embodied, and dazzling. As with her past work, superimpositions open an invitation to consider the multiplicity of each discrete form. Across the homelands of Aboriginal and Zenadth Kes Islander peoples, composite visions shimmer with life – a vast, elemental life, bound to matter, but unbound from a logic of linear time. Through this unruly alchemy and the amplification of latent sounds, places are sensed as geological and cosmic vibrations. Some oscillate, seemingly unendingly, and others flash for what we modestly call a second – emanating astounding forces hidden in plain sight. ~ Ilinca Vânău

MALENA SZLAM is a Chilean filmmaker based in Montréal/Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang. Through her practice, Szlam reimagines connections between human beings and the natural world. Attentive to how geopolitics are intertwined with natural phenomena—from moon’s orbital phases to the sweeping high-plateau of central Andes—her films, installations, and photographs explore embodied perception and the affective dimensions of analogue film processes. Her recent projects focus on geology, earth sciences, and volcanology. She has collaborated with composers and scientists, including Lawrence English, Clive Oppenheimer, and Susannah Buchan to create soundscapes that emanate from deep within the earth’s crust, the ocean, and the atmosphere.

Her films have been exhibited at festivals and museums, including TIFF, MoMA, New Directors/New Films Festival, Cinéma du Réel, Edinburgh International Festival, IFFR, CPH:DOX, and Jeonju IFF. Szlam’s 2018 film ALTIPLANO was awarded 25 FPS’s Grand Prix, Melbourne International Film Festival’s Best Experimental Short Film, Curtocircuíto’s Explora, and TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten. Group exhibitions include “femmes volcans forêts torrents” at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and “The Moon: From Inner Worlds to Outer Space” at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.

MERAPI (2021), ALTIPLANO (2018), Morphology of a Dream (2015), Lunar Almanac (2013), Anagrams of Light (2011), Rhythm Trail (2010 – 2011), Beneath Your Skin of Deep Hollow (2010), Chronogram of Inexistent Time (2008)