Mirrors 2021

Silica

Pia Borg I 2017 I 24'

SYNOPSIS

An opal mine in the Australian desert that could be the future setting for a science fiction film. An essay on reality, authenticity, representation and imitation in a world where all these concepts are exchanged and modified on a daily basis. A heterogeneous journey through time, bringing together spaces and establishing connections between mythology, history, art and commerce.

BIOGRAPHY

Pia Borg

PIA BORG (1977) is an Australian artist and filmmaker who lives and works between London and Los Angeles. Her work was screened in the Maltese pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale. She has received numerous awards and her films have been shown in the official selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Rotterdam Film Festivals among many others.

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Critical text

In 2017, Pia Borg (Demonic) travelled to the south-east of the Australian desert to shoot Silica, a mixture of essay film and science fiction that explores a supernatural-looking territory, visiting the neighbouring mining villages. The landscape has been abandoned and the miners have decided to leave due to the depletion of resources and the fierce competition from imitation gemstones. The film records the traces of an endangered world, a symbol of the global transition from the genuine to the power of artifice, all through a magnificent formal approach that fuses microscopic recordings, computer-generated images and 35mm filming. JAVIER H. ESTRADA

Technical Sheet