Epílogo ornitológico sobre qué es antes, el artista o el ornitólogo
Date: 2010
Technique: Lightjet print. Set of 60 photographs
Dimensions: 35 x 30 cm each
Edition: 1/3
Es Baluard Museu d'Art Contemporani de Palma
Reg. no.: 736
Not on display
Epílogo ornitológico sobre qué es antes, el artista o el ornitólogo is a polyptych comprised of sixty photographs of different birds’ eggs. Much more than a rhetorical question, the title sums up the tension between the artistic and scientific methods, a constant theme in the artist’s work. Thus, in articulating the polyptych he does not base himself on objective criteria of scientific cataloguing like species, age of the individuals or their geographical location, but applies artistic norms, such as the formal and compositional values, beauty, things subjective and sensory. The artistic criteria used in the polyptych replicate the golden ratio (a theory by the Renaissance mathematician Luca Pacioli) which indicates the main points of a plastic composition, very close to where the photographer concentrates the largest eggs in his composition.
E.C.
Lives and works in Malaga. A graduate in Fine Arts from the Universidad de Sevilla, with the speciality of Engraving and Design, Del Junco considers himself an artist who uses photography as a medium for expression. His artistic career began with The Richard Channin Foundation (1999-2002), an artistic group he founded in Seville along with the artists Miki Leal and Fernando Clemente, who use the media culture as the basis for their works which are sarcastic and steeped in irony. It was with this group that he gave his first exhibition, in 2001, in the Galería Cavecanem in Seville. His work is based on the utilisation of narrative image which leads to creations of a conceptual nature or with a constructed scenography, but also on images situated between the real and the metaphorical. From his early childhood he has been interested in studying and discovering nature, above all birds and insects, due to the influence of his father, an expert ornithologist and entomologist, and this leads him to engage in constant research and reflection on the relationship between art and science. In spite of being an artist with a career that is as yet brief, Juan del Junco’s work has been exhibited in the Galería Alfredo Viñas, Málaga (2007, 2010), Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville (2008), Museo de Huelva (2008), Laboral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón (2009), CAC Málaga (2010), and the Sala Puerta Nueva, Córdoba (2011). He has also taken part in the ARCO Madrid fair some years, as well as Foro Sur, Cáceres (2008), Just Madrid (2010), and diverse biennials and competitions. One of the prizes worth emphasising is the IV Premio Internacional de Fotografía Contemporánea Pilar Citoler, which was awarded to him in 2009, and he was also selected for the Caja Madrid Generación 2007 Art Prizes. His work is present in collections, museums and institutions such as the CAC Málaga, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, Caja Madrid and Ayuntamiento de Pamplona. E.B.
