ORNITHOGRAPHIES | XAVI BOU

“What kind of trace would birds leave in the sky, if it were possible?” is the question on which Xavi Bou (Barcelona, 1979) bases his artistic practice, where the sky becomes the canvas on which to act.
The artist draws inspiration from chronophotography, but does not intend to study the movement of animals per se, but rather to give it a tangible identity.
The Ornithographies project, started in 2015 and still ongoing, reveals what human perception is unable to grasp. It is the encounter between nature and technology, or rather, the testimony of how the latter is able to represent the environment and serve as a tool for interpreting reality itself.

Ornithographies is a series of landscape photographs in which what may appear to be graphic signs, sometimes almost alien traces, occupy the sky and overwhelm the earth.
Actually, these signs are birds in flight: from the images, one can guess their movements and trajectories, which are captured in numerous shots, subsequently combined together.

The visual effect is the most interesting aspect of these artworks: at a superficial, hurried, or distracted glance, the birds’ flight paths may seem like fluid and, at the same time, chaotic brushstrokes made on common landscape images with technological modification tools, such as Photoshop.
The hypothesis of a digital post-production intervention on a natural landscape is in itself interesting and opens up a whole series of debates on how these two realities can or should interface. But it is when one realizes the true identity of those brushstrokes that the work becomes truly impactful and intriguing, capable of showing how deeply technology and nature are already intertwined and communicate with each other.

Bou’s passion began when he was still a child. As he grew up, the artist decided to translate it into an intriguing artistic expression, capable of conveying the fascination and enthusiasm that generated it.

08/06/24

ORNITHOGRAPHIES | XAVI BOU

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