About - Xavi Bou

BIOGRAPHY, XAVI BOU (BARCELONA, 1979)

Xavi Bou’s work explores the representation of animal movement through the technique of digital chronophotography, a practice situated at the intersection of art and science.

His interest in nature began in childhood, during long walks through the Llobregat Delta with his grandfather, who passed on his love for birds and the environment. However, that landscape was marked by a striking contrast: in the late 1980s, it was one of the most industrialized and polluted regions in Europe. Textile factories discharged their waste directly into the river, and the beach they used to visit was among the most degraded on the Mediterranean coast. That early experience, a nature deeply scarred by unchecked development, shaped in him an environmental awareness that was early and unsentimental, and that has strongly influenced his worldview: a need to find, in the beauty and astonishing complexity of the natural world, a motivating force for building a more sustainable relationship with the planet.

Trained in geology and photography, Bou has developed the project *Ornitografías* since 2012, making visible the choreographies of birds in flight. This series has had wide international resonance, featured in general and specialized media as well as scientific and cultural publications. It has helped position the project in a hybrid context between art, science, and environmental communication. *Ornitografías* has led to books, exhibitions, and new projects such as *Fluctus* and *Entomografías*.

His work has been exhibited in contemporary art centers, international photography festivals, and natural science museums, bridging two realms that rarely interact: the poetic sensitivity of art and the explanatory rigour of science. In that space, his work proposes new modes of perception that invite us to rethink our relationship with nature.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My artistic practice begins with a question I consider urgent:

How do we look at animals?

What does our way of representing them reveal about our relationship with them and, ultimately, about the way we inhabit the world?

In a time when ecological crisis and technological acceleration have radically transformed our perception of nature, I propose a visual experience that does not offer answers but instead opens questions.

Through a contemporary technique of chronophotography, gathering sequences of animal movement and assembling them into a single image, I aim to reveal invisible structures: natural choreographies, flight patterns, trajectories that escape ordinary sight. These images do not freeze a moment, but condense an expanded temporality: a way of seeing time as a fluid, non-linear phenomenon.

My work is situated in the tradition of cabinets of curiosities, not as an accumulation of rarities, but as a device for visual inquiry. In these contemporary cabinets, the boundaries between art and science dissolve. The natural world no longer appears as an object of control or taxonomic study, but as a sensitive territory where everything is interconnected.

From Ornitografías to Entomografías and Fluctus, the core of my work is a call to perceptual empathy: inviting the viewer to look with new eyes, to see animals not as symbols, study subjects, or exotic creatures, but as fellow beings with whom we share a story, a planet, and a common destiny.

My artistic practice is a way to explore how images can expand perception, interrupt the logic of the instantaneous, and restore a deeper, more poetic, and more respectful relationship with the rhythms of the living.

In a time when we urgently need to rethink our relationship with nature, art has the power to imagine new ways of seeing and feeling.

My work aspires to be one of those ways: a window into invisible worlds, a visual metaphor of interdependence, an invitation to look beyond the human.

ORNITHOGRAPHIES EXHIBITIONS

> UPCOMING – Bird’s-Eye Views. Between Sky and Streetscape, Kunts und Natur museum, Germany 2026
> UPCOMING – Dennos Museum Center. 2026
> UPCOMING – Museu de Montserrat. 2026
> Solo show, Foster White Gallery, Seattle. 2025
> Solo show, Galeria Ethra, Mexico. 2025
> Group show, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens. 2025
> Solo Show, La Nuu photo festival, Catalonia 2025 > Group Show, The High Life, Florida 2025
> Solos show, PhotoVogue, Milan. 2025
> Solos show, Muséum de Bourdeaux – Sciences et nature. 2024
> Solos show, Blue Sky, the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts. 2024
> Solo show, Senda Gallery, Barcelona. 2024
> Solo show, Polish-Japanese Academy, Warsaw. 2024
> Solo show, Festival CARGO, Saint-Nazaire France. 2024
> Solo show, Mathematikum, GieBen, Germany, 2024
> Group show, Fotografia Europea Festival, Itali. 2024
> Solos show, Mathematikum, GieBen, Germany. 2024
> Screening, Loop video art fair, Barcelona. 2023
> Solo show, Bienal Ciutat i Ciencia, Barcelona. 2023
> Goup show, Cervells, CCCB, Catalonia, 2022
> Solo show, Galerie des Halles, Louvain la Neuve, Belgium. 2022
> Solo show, Delta Birding Festival, Catalonia, Spain. 2022
> Solo show, LAB 36 gallery, Barcelona, Catalonia. 2022
> Solo show, Scotiabank Contact photo festival, The Cardinal Gallery, Toronto, Canada. 2022
> Group show, from 30/04, Traces, Momath, New York, USA. 2022
> Solo show, La Chambre gallery, Strasbourg, France. 2022
> Solo show Zingst photo festival, Max Hunter Haus gallery, Germany. 2021
> Solo show, KANT photo festival, October, Denmark. 2021
> Screening, ForadCamp, Catalonia, 2021
> Solo show, Cosmocaixa, June, Catalonia. 2021
> Solo show, Luminic Photo Festival, March, Catalonia. 2021
> Solo show, La Destil·leria Art Gallery, Mataró, Catalonia. 2021
> Group show, L’Illot Sauvage, Renne, France. 2020
> Solo show, Kant Festival, Thisted, Denmark. 2020
> Solo show, Mazier University in Saint Brieuc, France. 2020
> Solo show, Phyletisches Museum in Jena, Germany. 2020
> Solo show, Université de Rennes, France. 2019/2020
> Solo show, Centro Fotográfico Alvarez Bravo, Oaxaca, México. 2019
> Group Show, Bath House Cultural Center, Dallas, US. June 2019
> Solo show, Punt De Vistes Art space, Barcelona. 2019
> Solo show, VIPHOTO festival, Euskadi. 2018
> Solo show, “Stream Unconference”, Greece. 2018
> Solo Show, Triple Space art Gallery, Rusia. 2018
> Group show, “Photovisa festival”, Rusia. 2018
> Solo show, “Festival Chapitre Nature”, France. 2018
> Group show, “Phes”, Madrid, Spain. 2018
> Solo show, Casa Golferich, Barcelona, Spain. 2018
> Solo show, Fine Art Igualada Photo Festival, Spain. 2018
> Solo show, Mijas Contemporary Art Centre, Spain. 2017
> Solo show, NPO Swiss Cancer League, Switzerland. 2017
> Part of “Leonardo, or the dream of flying” Museum Twentsewelle, Holland. 2017
> Group show “Freedom”, Aperture Foundation, New York, US. 2017
> Ornithographies, group show, Fine Art Igualada Photo Festival, Spain. 2016
> Project presentation at the Observatory, Barcelona, Spain. 2015

EXHIBITIONS

> Solo show “Autoretrats”, Can Basté, Barcelona, Spain. 2007
> Solo show “Paisatges Temporals”, Jardins de la Pau, Spain. 2007
> Group show, “Delta de Llobregat”, Prat de Llobregat, Spain. 2006
> Group show, Fotomercé la Virreina, Barcelona, Spain. 2006
> Group show, “Delta de Llobregat”, Jardins de la Pau, Spain. 2004
> Group show, “L’Estiu Insòlit”, Centre d’art la Capsa, Spain. 2004
> Group show, “Insomni”, Escola GrisArt, Barcelona, Spain. 2003
> Group show, “Cubic”, happing Pota Blava, Spain. 2003

SELECTED WEBSITES

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

> National Geographic Spain, January 2026
> De la Repubblica, July 2025
>The Observer, December 2024
> Imagine 5, September 2024
> Landliebe, September 2024
> SZ magazine, 2024
> Geo magazine, June 2024
> National Geographic, April 2024
> Science Notes Magazine, March 2024
> BBC Science Focus, January 2024
> De Morgen, April 2023
> Focus Magazine, December 2022
> Der Speigel, December 2022
> The Observer, October 2022
> Euronews, August 2022
> Wonderground Journal, June 2022
> De Morgen, April 2022
> IDEAT magazine, March 2022
> WWF magazine, August 2021
> Revista Salvaje, Spring 2021
> Birdlife magazine, Spring 2021
> Natur Magazine, Germany , April 2021
> Audubon Society magazine Spring 2021
> Granta Magazine , November 2020
> Yorokobu magazine, November 2020
> Sierra Club Magazine , September 2020
> Natuurfotografie Magazine, June 2020
> N magazine , Norwegian Airlines, January 2020
> Binspired magazine, Belgium, June 2019
> Courrier International, France, November 2018
> Descobrir Catalunya, September 2018
> La Fotografina Magazine, Spain, autumn 2018
> Seo bird Life Magazine, Spain, autumn 2018
> Fotoforum Magazine, Germany, November 2018
> Der Greif Spring summer 2018
> Fine art FotoMAGAZIN edition, Germany, 2018
> About trust magazine, Germany, September 2018
> La fotografia magazine, Spain, September 2018
> SEO birdlife magazine, Spain, September 2018
> Audi Magazine, Worldwide, Spring 2018
> 212 Magazine, Worldwide, Spring 2018
> Studio 21 Art Magazine, Lisbon, Spring 2018
> Illustreret Videnskab, Denmark, May 2018
> Fotomagazin, Deutschland, May 2018
> Bild om Sonntag, Deutschland, April 2018
> National Geographic USA, January 2018
> Geo Russia, January 2017
> National Geographic Spain, April 2017
> Geo Deutschland, January 2017
> Pro Photographer Magazine New Zealand, January 2017
> Migrate Magazine South Africa, December 2016
> Chaeg Magazine South Korea, January 2017
> Greenpeace Magazine Alemania, Octubre 2016
> Wilderness Magazine , February 2017
> Professional Photographer’s of America magazine, EEUU, January 2017
> Revista superinteressante Brasil, February 2017
> Visiones, España February 2017
> Zygote quarterly. EEUU February 2017
> The Guardian UK November 2016
> Sonntag Alemania, October 2016
> Volkskrant Holanda, November 2016
> The Spiegel Alemania, November 2016
> De morgen, Belgium, Octubre 2016
> Metro Helsinki. November 2016
> Metro Chile, November 2016
> Metro Colombia, November 2016
> Metro Mexico, November 2016
> Politiken, Denmark December 2016

TALKS AND WORKSHOPS

> Talk, Mil anys de cels, Cripta Gaudí, 2025
> Talk, Converses Numèric, Agullana, 2025
> Talk, GDT Photo Festival, Lünen, Germany. 2023
> Talk, El Medol, Contemporary art center, Tarragona, 2023
> Talk, Bienal Ciutat i Ciencia, Barcelona, 2023
> Talk, Delta birding Festival, Catalonia, 2022
> Talk, “Caixaforum” Lleida, Catalonia, 2021
> Talk, “Caixaforum” Girona, Catalonia, 2021
> Talk, “Caixaforum” Palma de Mallorca, Spain 2021
> Talk, “Caixaforum” Tarragona, Catalonia 2021
> Talk, “Cosmocaixa”, Barcelona, Catalonia, 2021
> Talk, “E.T. Fest” webinar, 2021
> Talk “Kant photo festival”, online, 2021
> Talk “Birdlife Rare Bird Club” online event, 2021
> Talk, TEDx, Konstanz University, online, 2020
> Talk, “Birdlife Flyway” webinar, 2020
> Talk “Montphoto photo festival”, Lloret de Mar, Spain 2019
> Workshop, “Centro fotografico Alvarez Bravo”, Oaxaca, México, 2019

> Workshop, IDEP photography school, Catalonia, 2019
> Talk “FIO Ornithology Fair”, Extremadura, Spain 2018
> Talk, “Utopia market” Art fair, Catalonia, 2018
> Workshop, IDEP photography school, Catalonia 2017
> Talk, “El Observatorio” photography School, Catalonia, 2015

COLLECTIONS

> Whitworth University, Lied Art Center
> Fundació Carmen & Lluís Bassat, Catalonia
> Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain, Alsace, France.
> Museum of American Bird Art at Mass Audubon, Massachusetts, USA.
> Dawn Art Collection, London, UK.
> Fundació Vila Casas, Catalonia.
> University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics permanent art collection, USA.
> Contemporary art Center, Mijas, Spain.
> Private collectors around 27 countries.