Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya

The luminous flora, volcanic geographies, and plunging horizons of the Gondwana Rainforest in the eastern ranges of Australia metamorphose into an imaginary landscape.

Spanning installations, performances and films, including the hypnotic Altiplano (2018), the work of Malena Szlam creates sensory and lyrical representations of natural landscapes, exploring the multiple layers that shape them through the organicity of silver halide film.
Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya is set in eastern Australia, at the heart of a region deeply rooted in the beliefs of the Aboriginal peoples. From Mount Beerwah and the Bunya mountains to the ancestral Gondwana rainforests, Szlam composes a dazzling cartography of volcanic formations and flora, seeking to capture the historical traces of these environments. Like colliding tectonic plates, the superimpositions create temporal shocks that render these strata of geological time palpable. The perception of nature turns into a mnesic and imaginary landscape, amplified by the sound textures and field recordings by Australian artist Lawrence English.
In a craftsman-like approach, where most of the techniques used never override intuition, Szlam explores the spaces she films in 16mm with her Bolex camera, plunging into them at different times of day and night. Each shot becomes a vibration of matter and time, enhanced by orangey, golden and emerald hues. A point of convergence between the light kindled by the recent eruption of the Hunga Ha’apai volcano and the millennial land formations, her film metamorphoses the landscape into a mythological entity.

Nepheli Gambade