PhotoEspaña 2011 – Madrid

I think there’s no need to present this event again, as if none of you already knew about one of the most important photography festival in Europe. But again, there’s a few lost souls who may still be unfamiliar with the “photography takes the city” concept.

In it’s 14th edition the annual PhotoEspaña festival (held in 4 cities at the same time: Madrid, Lisbon, Cuenca & Alcalá de Henares) takes “Interfaces: Portrait & Communication” as it’s gravitational subject. Gerardo Mosquera has become with this edition the chief curator of the festival for the next 3 years, and in 2011 PHE will consist of 70 exhibitions of 370 artists and creators, from 55 countries….. but who?

Let’s see if you know a few of these names…. Cindy Sherman, Thomas Ruff, Ron Galella, Alfredo Jaar, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Dayanita Singh, Kan Xuan, and Nancy Burson are among this year’s participating artists. No need to continue right?

Set out to become a Festival generated by popular demand in 1998 PHE is slowly evolving into something much richer and complex than a few exhibitions spread across selected galleries in Madrid. Just like many other festivals (of any type) PHE keeps adapting new formats, new proposals and more interactive ways of reaching the public (besides enlarging their footprint).

The new program includes debates,  workshops and a long long list of activities… Starting this very month the Campus PHE Book Editing event takes place, a workshop devoted to the introduction and assessment in editing images, designing books and the general concept of a project or any editorial photographical work. A full list can be found here (click where it says campus, but it’s in Spanish-only for now).

Another example is the crowdsourcing exhibition that will take place at Fundacion Canal with the winners of their on-line webcam contest (more info here).

Faces & more Faces… as our identifying bar code, a mirror of our soul, character and personality: the essence of this exhibition. It will be the Reina Sofia (MNCARS) who will officially inaugurate the festival at the Royal Botanic Gardens (near Prado Museum) next June 1st.