[ISEA2023] Artists Statement: Timothy Thomasson & Benjamin Keenan — ITZAN: Travelling through time

Artists Statement

Exhibition, MAIF Social Club, May 19 – 22

Timothy Thomasson & Benjamin Keenan, are selected ISEA2023 artists

The MAIF Social Club exhibition Le Chant des Forêts presents an additional immersive work, a journey through time, into the Mayan forests.

The Maya are one of the oldest civilizations in America. Their history is marked by many upheavals that could be linked, at least in part, to the relationship they had with their environment. It is considered today that the Maya abandoned their cities because of a devastating drought that took place between 730 and 900.

Itzan is an archaeological site located in northern Guatemala. Produced by digital artist Timothy Thomasson and researcher Benjamin Keenan, the artwork called ITZAN converts biological and geological data collected on site into a film that accurately represents the evolution of the population, vegetation and climate over 6,000 years.

The work also speaks to our own times and the ever-present need for reorganization and resilience.

For a total immersion in the forest, you can enjoy a free visit in the exhibition Le Chant des Forêts.

  • Timothy Thomasson (CA) is an artist based in Montreal. His work interrogates the ways in which moving images are produced and consumed in historical and contemporary contexts, particularly examining the effects of computer-generated images on society, culture and perception. His work has been featured in galleries and media festivals in Canada and internationally.
  • Benjamin Keenan is a biogeochemist who uses combinations of geochemical proxies to sediment cores to reconstruct changes in climate, population, vegetation, and fire use over 3,300 years around the ancient population center Maya of Itzan, in the Maya lowlands of the southwestern department of Petén, Guatemala. Benjamin is interested in the interaction between humans and their environment, migration as an adaptive response to climate change, and how insights from the past can inform responses to anthropogenic climate change. Benjamin’s work has been covered internationally by CBC, Radio Canada, Global News, CTV, Haaretz, Daily Mail, El Mundo, Archeology Magazine, DW, Numerama, RT, El Ciudadano and Le Climatoscope.