River and Bird Liturgy (Conceptual Andalusia) is latest chapter of the series Conceptual Andalusia by Juan del Junco (Jerez de la Frontera, 1972). It was commissioned by the C3A for its showrooms, and was created in Cordoba. It includes 98 unpublished photographs by the artist, in an exercise linking the landscape and nature to photographic conceptual analysis. The project was carried out at several locations in the province of Cordoba during expeditions at different times of the year. In the exhibition the artist revives the form of large-format triptychs, and shows his continuing interest in ornithology. He comments; "Whoever walks -or flies- towards the river bank will discover the strong aroma of poplar bark, and on descending the slope to the bank will reach the reed bed that emerges from the river and trembles with the wind".

This show is the eighth chapter of del Junco's series Conceptual Andalusia, which he began in 2014, inspired by Wild Andalusia, a book of photographs by the Swiss photographer Charles-André Vaucher (Geneva, 1915 - Cologny, 1997) published in 1967. This book serves to make an atypical combination of prevailing paradigms of bird photography then and the conceptual art of today.

Juan del Junco, a Fine Arts graduate of the University of Seville, was a founding member of the short-lived Richard Channin Foundation artist collective in the late 1990s. He won the 4th annual Pilar Citoler Contemporary Photography Award in 2010, and has shown his work in numerous solo and group shows, such as Never-Ending Handbook; Guía de las aves de mi mundo ["guide to the birds of my world"] at the Centro de Arte Alcobendas, Conceptual Andalusia: Européens en vol ["Europeans in flight"] at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid); El sueño del ornitólogo II ["the ornithologist's dream"] (del Phylloscopus sibilatrix a la Oxiura jamaicensis) at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville. He now teaches at the Fine Arts School of the University of Malaga.

Download digital catalogue.

Album on Flickr.