PhotoEspaña: an Iconic Event Not-To-Be-Missed

For 3 months, from June 3 through August 30, Madrid will again be transformed into the world capital of photography, because of the international festival of photography and visual arts, PHotoEspaña, an event founded in 1998 with the clear vision of being a festival organized by the private sector.

With eighteen annual additions under its belt, this event has gained international prestige, making it one of the most relevant visual arts events in the world, growing in recognition every year. Recently, the festival received the Gold Medal of Merit in Fine Arts, an award given by the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports of the Spanish government.

Thanks to the many activities and exhibitions within the framework of PHotoEspaña, many projects become known, such as photography exhibitions, videos, and installations by prominent as well as new photographers and artists. More than 1,000 exhibitions have been hosted in the city’s main museums, exhibit centers and art galleries; it attracts more than seven hundred thousand visitors every year, which makes it one of the most popular cultural events in Spain.

This year’s edition is dedicated in its entirety to Latin American photography, with an analysis of the evolution and complexity of photography within this region, from its origins to modern times, with works by recognized artists as well as new talent from new generations.

One of the largest works of the PHE15 is the great retrospective show of Mário Cravo Neto, one of the most important representatives of Brazilian photography and culture, the first one of its kind in Europe after his death in 2009. The exhibition will include his works in color, as well as black and white.

Also to be discovered are selected pieces from outstanding international collections, proof of the growing emergence of Latin American art, like the collective exhibition Locus: espacios y sus demonios, exhibiting pieces from the collection Dares Latin-American, under the curatorship of Gerardo Mosquera.

Thanks to the collaboration with institutions such as the Centro de la Imagen de México, we were able to organize other collective exhibitions such as the one reviewing the trajectory of contemporary Mexican photography, with Ana Casas Broda, Gabriela González Reyes, and Gerardo Montiel Klint as curators.

Additionally, there are programs for professionals: Campus PHE has workshops allowing for the possibility to learn and work alongside recognized artists in this sector. The goal of the program Descubrimientos PHE is to put new photographers together with international curators, gallerists, and editors. Also, Encuentros PHE organizes debates to discuss the state of photography today.