PHOTOESPAÑA 2016 FOCUSES ON THE PROFUSION OF “EUROPES” WITHIN A PLURALITY OF IDENTITIES AND VISIONS OF THE CONTINENT

The 19th edition of PhotoEspaña, the international festival of photography and visual arts, presents, from June 1st to August 28th, 94 exhibitions featuring the work of 330 artists and an ample program of activities aimed at both professionals and the public at large. The festival will take place in Madrid, Alcalá de Henares, Alcobendas, Lanzarote, Zaragoza, Murcia and Segovia, with the latter two joining the festival for the first time. The Official Section will be completed by five projects at museums in five cities in Castilla-La Mancha: Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara and Toledo, with shows created specifically for these venues by five Spanish and international photographers to commemorate the 4th centenary of the death of Cervantes. 52 museums, art centers and other spaces, as well as 32 galleries, are presenting projects for PHotoEspaña 2016, made possible through the support, sponsorship and collaboration of 61 public and private organizations. Madrid’s City Hall, the Community of Madrid and Spain’s Secretary of State for Culture are the three major public pillars in the principal venues. The Fundación Banco Sabadell, ACCIONA, D. O. Ribera del Duero and Adobe Stock join the Fundación ICO, Fundación Loewe, Fundación Canal, Fundación Telefónica, Samsung, Mahou and El Corte Inglés in supporting PHotoEspaña.

PHotoEspaña 2016 closes a three-year cycle in which the Festival has focused on distinct geographical areas. If in its 2014 and 2015 editions it looked at Spanish and Latin American photography respectively, PHotoEspaña 2016 offers a vision of photography on the European continent.

PHotoEspaña 2016 approaches this historical and oblique vision of Europe as a mosaic that reveals both the plurality of identities and perceptions circulating throughout the continent and the existence of a common feeling of belonging to a European territory and culture; a changing, never homogenous Europe that presents the other side of the history of photography on the continent, in solo and group shows curated by François Cheval and Audrey Hoareau, Alexis Fabry and Maria Willis, Chema Conesa, Frits Giertsberg,  Anne Morin and Anna Douglas.

The Festival includes various group shows of a thematic and conceptual character, with work by Spanish and international artists that express Europe’s plurality. The Círculo de Bellas Artes presents Transitions. Ten Years that Altered Europe, a reflection on the enormous social, political, economic and cultural changes occurring between 1979 and 1989, a decade that marked the present, through the work of some 30 artists. Conde Duque offers To the Gates of Paradise! A Photo-Essay on Migrants, Nomads, Exiles, Refugees, and the Stateless, a moving dialogue between photography and migrants that juxtaposes current conditions with previous migratory movements. CentroCentro Cibeles presents Portrait Photography in Europe since 1990, A survey of the evolution of European portrait photography during the last 25 years, offering reflections on European identity, culture and history. The Reina Sofía Museum joins PHotoEspaña 2016 with Humanism and Subjectivity in Spanish Photography of the 50s and 60s. The Afal Case. While the Sala de Arquerías of the Ministry of Public Works hosts Camera and Model. The Photography of Architectural Models in Spain, 1925-1970, a tribute to scale models and photography as major means of architectural expression.

PHE16 offers the opportunity to explore up close the work of major past and contemporary European photographers who have never been shown in Madrid, or not as extensively. The Royal Botanical Garden-CSIC presents shows by Bernard Plossu and Linarejos Moreno. Plossu, PHotoEspaña 2013 Award winner, has chosen timeless images shot in Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Turkey for The Immobile Hour, A Mediterranean Metaphysics. In Tabularia: Laboratories of Science and Imagination, Linarejos Moreno explores the limits between art and science, with large format works in various media. The Madrid native is also presenting an installation at Tabacalera, Space for the Promotion of Art, in which he reflects on places that have lost their original function.

The Círculo de Bellas Artes is showing one of the most influential fashion photographers of the 20th century, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, who revolutionized the world of fashion photography, in the first show dedicated to her outside the United States. The venue also features a project by Federico Clavarino, The Castle, a reflection, at times poetic at others more literal, on the elements essential for defining Europe.

The ICO Museum presents Displacements, from Andrea Robbins and Max Becher, featuring their most acclaimed series from the past quarter century. At their gallery on the Gran Vía, the Fundación Loewe is rescuing the work of one of the most important and little known of the Bauhaus photographers, Lucia Moholy. The Fundación Telefónica pays tribute to Inge Morath through the work of seven contemporary photographers in dialogue with the Austrian artist in In the Footsteps of Inge Morath. Danube Prospects. The Museo Cerralbo offers a faithful reflection of England in the 1950s with Women, Children and Loitering Men, featuring both her best known photos and unpublished work. In addition, The Museum of Romanticism presents the work of Miroslav Tichý, a photographic artisan who created his own photographic materials.

The Centro Cultural de la Villa Fernán Gómez rediscovers the work of Juana Biarnés, Spain’s first female photojournalist, as well as the exhibition Muchismo, an inventory featuring recent work by Cristina de Middel, one of the most important contemporary Spanish photographers.

The Prado Museum presents Copied by the Sun a unique opportunity to enjoy the exceptional illustrated volume Annals of the Artists of Spain, a selection of milestones of Spanish art history with images by Nicolaas Henneman and William Fox Talbot. The Community of Madrid is showing a retrospective of the work of Paco Gómez in The Paco Gómez Archive, featuring 400 images including original photos and magazines. Vivian Maier, Street Photographer, at the Fundación Canal, is the first major show dedicated to the unusual artist, offering a unique testimony of New York and Chicago during the second half the 20th century. The Museo Lázaro Galdiano, in collaboration with the Polish Institute of Culture and the Fundación Beç Zmiana, presents A-Z, Ilustrated Dictionary, in which Andrzej Tobis draws on an illustrated German-Polish dictionary publish in Leipzig in 1954 to offer his particular vision, imbued with irony and humor. Calcografía Nacional (a collection of copper-plate engravings), together with the Latvian National Museum of Art and the Latvian Embassy, is showing Nagli. LV-4631, a project by M?ris Maskal?ns featuring a deeply-felt portrayal of the rural inhabitants of his native Latvia. The Casa de America is hosting Und Jetzt? (Now what?) by Cuban photographer José A. Figueroa, photographic testimony of the gradual fall of the Berlin Wall, also symbolizing the collapse of the system which built it; and in collaboration with ACCIONA, The Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development-AECID, The Folio Club and Canson Infinity: Intimate cartographies, an approach to interpersonal relations, a selection of portfolios reviewed during Trasatlántica 2015 in Mexico City and Santiago, Chile. The Spanish National Library, with help from Sago Packaging, will present The Best Photography Books of the Year. The festival’s Official Section is completed by Coutures at the Museo Nacional del Traje (Fashion Museum), featuring more than ten years of work by Joséphine Douet, and Around the World in Twenty Years of Opera at the Teatro Real, a selection of photos of places evoked in operas presented at the Royal Opera House during the past 20 years, part of the double celebration commemorating the theater’s founding 200 years ago and its reopening after extensive renovations 20 years ago.

The Off Festival consists of a selection of shows organized by Madrid’s art galleries. 32 exhibitions featuring photography and video make up a section whose aim is to help promote and develop the photography market. This section reflects PhotoEspaña’s collaborative spirit, a collective venture featuring an ample variety of projects and exhibition spaces. This year the Festival Off offers projects by Nagore Legarreta, Bigas Luna, Nanna Hänninen, Daniel Mayrit, Miguel Rosón Riestra, Ouka Leele, Mónica Sánchez-Robles, Chloe Dewe Mathews, Abraham Calero, Gerardo Vielba, Adolfo Patiño, Cristina de Middel, Jesús Labandeira, Christian Voigt, Tete Álvarez, Joel-Peter Witkin, Basurama, Virginia Rota, Linarejos Moreno, Boa Mistura, Juan de Sande, Valle Galera and Ignacio Evangelista, among others.

Segovia’s La Cárcel, Centro de Creación presents Spain, The 1950s, by Carlos Saura, a chance to discover the acclaimed director’s still photography with a unique perspective on 1950s rural Spain, a show which inaugurates Segovia’s incorporation into the Festival.

The Alcalá de Henares City Hall, the German Embassy and the Goethe Foundation have organized A Visual Memory of Life, a retrospective, by Jürgen Schadeberg, featuring seventy-five years of his work portraying post-war Berlin, England in the 60s, and the struggle against South African apartheid; at the Convent of Santa María la Rica, in Alcalá de Henares.

Alcobendas is participating with seven exhibitions. Salvador Allende Boulevard is hosting Paris, rien de plus by Alberto García-Alix, with photos taken in Paris in 2003. The Centro de Arte Alcobendas is showing: Yannis Karpouzis, winner of the PHE 2015 Discoveries Prize; Ricardo Cases with Dove on the Wing; Pierre Gonnord, winner of the 2015 City of Alcobendas International Photography Award; Aleix Plademunt, PHE15 Revelation Award with Almost There; and Nicolas Grospierre, who pays tribute to books with All Pales Before the Book. In addition, Confines, at the Centro Cultural Anabel Segura, features the work of nine artists who graduated from the 8th edition of the PhotoEspaña Master of Photography at the PhotoEspaña International School in Alcobendas (PIC.A).

In Zaragoza, Daniel Blaufuks presents All the World’s Memory, Part 1 at the Centro de Historias. In La Cripta, located in the same venue, is Pat Graham’s show Instrument, while La Lonja offers Chema Conesa’s Paper Portraits, a gallery of renowned figures from Spain’s transition to democracy in the 1970s to the present.

Visions of La Mancha consists of five shows by national and international artists who have photographed distinct aspects of La Mancha. The Brazilian Caio Reisevizt immersed himself in the industrial and technological side of La Mancha for Innovation Today, at the Museo de Albacete; in Primitive Data 5, Pinacoteca, Montserrat Soto discovers the work of artists from La Mancha’s Golden Age in the collection of the Ciudad Real Museum-Convent of La Merced; at the Cuenca Museum, Jordi Bernadó retraces the footsteps of Don Quixote on his travels through La Mancha, capturing everything from statues to farmhouse gates, pubs and antique stores from a humorous and ironic viewpoint; in The City and its People, on display at Guadalajara’s Palacio del Infantado, the Italian photographer Ferdinando Scianna offers a look at La Mancha’s people and architecture; and lastly, British photographer John Davies presents a journey through the dramatic landscapes of La Mancha in Landscapes of La Mancha at the Santa Cruz de Toledo Museum.

In the Cruce Contemporaneo room of La Casa de Velázquez can be seen Photographs From the Casa de Velázquez 2016, a group show by artists from the institution’s residency program; FNAC Callao is showing the Uruguayan photographer Christian Rodriguez; the Hotel Iberostar Las Letras Gran Vía is offering a group show from La Fábrica’s own collection; Madrid’s Italian Institute of Culture is hosting a show by Gabriele Basilico focusing on various Italian cities; Juan del Junco explores Europe’s current situation at the National Museum of Natural Sciences; while the Real Sociedad Fotográfica presents Dolcet’s Triple Vision.

International cultural cooperation has made possible the exhibitions at the Central European House of Photography in Bratislava, featuring Vasil Stanko; the Musée Nicéphore-Niépce, in Chalon Sur Saône, with L´oeil de l´expert; PhotoIreland, presenting the installation Flâneur by Dublin in the streets of that city; the Istanbul Modern Photography Gallery, with the group show Habitat; the Finish Museum of Photography, showing the work of Alec Soth, a photojournalist with the Magnum agency; The Photographers’ Gallery of London with Double Take: Drawing and Photography; The Lumière Brothers Center for Photography in Moscow, where Sandro Miller is offering a tribute to the photos which have influenced him throughout his career in the face of actor John Malkovich; the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, with a show by Marcel Gautherot; the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga, presenting Tamed Nature, Nature Motives in Fashion from the 18th Century to the Present; the Nederlands Fotomuseum offering a retrospective of photographs capturing “the scene of the crime”; and Warsaw’s Fundacja Bec Zmiana, with the show Summer in the City.

Descubrimientos PHE is the forum for photography professionals presenting, between May 30th and June 3rd, an extensive program of activities at the PIC.A PHotoEspaña International School in Alcobendas. Descubrimientos PHE will offer two portfolio review sessions, bringing together 160 national and international photographers and 40 specialists. In addition, the program includes the workshops Campus PHE Creative Images with Michael Atavar and Self-Publish, Be Happy with Bruno Ceschel and various professional participants. Among participating specialists, whose collaboration is made possible by Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), via its Program for the Internationalization of Spanish Culture (PICE), are Gaston Deleau, Jean Chistophe Godet, Gonzalo Golpe, Ciara Hickey, Oscar Alonso Molina, Dieter Neubert, Guillaume Chamahian, Lucy Conticello, Javier Díaz Guardiola, Bohunka Koklesova, Fabiola López Durán, Tania Pardo, Marc Prüst and Simon Roberts, among others. Also participating in the Descubrimientos PHE Week will be artists awarded grants by the Ankaria Foundation, after having taken part in portfolio reviews organized in Oporto. The Region of Murcia joins the Festival this year as a new official site, with a program of portfolio reviews aimed at promoting and disseminating photography in the region, to be celebrated in the Centro Párraga. Five photographers selected in this review, organized by the Institute for Cultural Industries and the Arts, will participate in the Descubrimientos PHotoEspaña program. Additionally, Caixaforum is hosting Encounters PhotoEspaña: an Unexpected Mosaic. Singularities of European Photography, organized by Bratislava’s Central European House of Photography. The encounters will consider various aspects of European photography with the aim of tackling a series of topics having to do with their common history.

In 2008, PHotoEspaña launched Trasatlántica, a forum for photography and the visual arts that has convoked photographers, researchers, and art critics and curators from Spain and Latin America to participate in an ample program of activities including encounters, publishing workshops, portfolio reviews, exhibitions and contests. At present, the forum has organized activities in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Spain, the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela. Trasatlántica PHotoEspaña continues in 2016 thanks to support from the The Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development-AECID and its network of Cultural Centers, presenting portfolio reviews in Peru as part of Lima Photo, and Panama as part of Fotoseptiembre. In addition, Trasatlántica is now coming to the African continent with a portfolio review in Dakar. Moreover, ACCIONA is renewing its support in the sphere of culture by launching, for the first time, the Trasatlántica ACCIONA Photography Award for “environment and sustainability.”

The 19th edition of PHotoEspaña has recaptured in a special way its plural and open character with regard to the public. And, once again owing to support from both the public and private sectors, PHE will inundate the streets of Madrid with photography and encourage the public to become involved and take an interest in photography. The PHotoEspaña Community of Madrid Forum is a physical as well as virtual space where photographers and the public can make direct contact through shows and encounters where they can “do,” “discuss,” “listen” and “live” photography. The Sala El Águila will play host to four shows chosen in an open selection process; the gardens of the Sala Canal de Isabel II will act as a forum in which photographers and collectives can enter into direct dialogue with the public; in this same space, Madrid’s principal photography schools will organize activities and workshops aimed at bringing photography closer to the interested public; and lastly, eight photographers will take over PhotoEspaña’s Instagram page and offer their ideas regarding Europe.

La Fundación Canal will host Saturday Workshops, where children can familiarize themselves with the world of photography and the self-portrait with the figure of Vivian Maier as a reference point. Also, the contest From Selfie to Self-Portrait: Long live self portraits! will challenge lovers of selfies to put aside for a few minutes this popular practice and recapture the magic and artistic value of the self-portrait. A unique opportunity for people to explore not only their photographic creativity, but their literary creativity as well, since each participant must accompany their pictures with a brief contextualizing story.

On June 24th, all lovers of photography are invited to the Samsung Galaxy S7 Nocturnal PhotoMarathon, the Festival’s most popular event, now returning after two years and, for the first time, to be celebrated at night. The challenge is to roam the streets of Madrid for two hours and find the perfect subject for a photo according to the theme proposed by the organization at the point of departure. Among the pictures they take, the PhotoMarathoners must choose one and share it on the event’s hashtag. The night’s wandering will end in an outdoor party in which participants can view their photos on a giant screen outside the Cines Callao while they share them on Instagram.

Four visual artists are invited to create various pieces that will be projected at distinct points throughout Madrid. Trees, the facades of buildings and other urban structures at some of the most emblematic sites of the Festival and the city will be transformed into outdoor exhibition spaces, offering the public, both invited and random, a dazzling gallery of images. Julien Nonnon will present one of his urban safaris; Daniel Canogar will “assault” the facade of the Conde Duque edifice; Javier Riera will take us inside his caves with their deer; and Louise Mackenzie will combine installation, performance and projections at the National Library.

PHotoEspaña 2016 has created two new online contests: Espíritu Ribera, organized with D.O. Ribera de Duero, in which participants take a photographic journey through the senses via the wines of this denomination of origin; and Curators in Adobe Stock, who invite participants to establish connections between pictures from a photographic archive belonging to Adobe Stock. And on June 30th a seminar led by an internationally known professional will be offered regarding new tools for the treatment of images.

PHotoEspaña and the Fundación Telefónica, in collaboration with the British Journal of Photography, will present Photography in Europe. In and Out, a program of projections and talks about contemporary photography that will analyze currents in European photography from the viewpoint of the photographers themselves.

PHotoEspaña 2016 will offer PHotoWalks, a participatory and didactic activity organized by the Festival. In July, the photographer Julio César González will lead this photographic walk through Alcalá de Henares, thanks to support from the city. In October, Miguel Ángel Tornero will present a workshop on the Canary island of Lanzarote, with support from the island’s local government, the Cabildo de Lanzarote.

From June 3rd to the 12th, La Fábrica will present PHotoBook Week. The event focuses on photobooks, and gathers together artists, critics and editors. Among the participants are the artists featured in the most recent books published by La Fábrica: : Laia Abril, Carlos Alba, Cristina de Middel, Bernard Plossu, Jesús Labandeira and the collective BlankPaper, all of whom will sign copies of their books.

In the scheduled encounters older and more recent publications by both Spanish and international publishers, as well as acclaimed self-publishing projects, will be discussed. The initiative includes a photobook fair with more than 100 self-published books for sale, chosen through an open selection process, as well as the latest volumes from publishers specializing in photography from throughout the world, including Mack, Pierre Von Kleist, Xabier Barral, Steidl, Aperture, Thames & Hudson, Hatje Cantz, Damiani, Tate, Nazraeli and Phaidon. In addition, the collectors Gabriela Cendoya and Yumi Goto will take part in PhotoBook Week, each offering a talk in which they’ll discuss their favorite photobooks.

La Fábrica publishes the PHotoEspaña 2016 Guide and seven catalogues and books to accompany some of the Festival’s exhibitions: La hora inmóvil by Bernard Plossu;  Louise Dahl-Wolf: Con estilo propio; España años 50, by Carlos Saura;  Black Cowboys; Muchismo, by Cristina de Middel; Transiciones, diez años que trastornaron Europa;  and Cámara y modelo. Fotografía de maquetas de arquitectura en España. They can be purchased in bookstores, at La Fábrica, and at the Festival’s authorized sales points, as well as at www.lafabrica.com

The Festival recognizes excellence in photography and awards the PHotoEspaña Prize: the Bartolomé Ros Prize for the best Spanish professional career in photography; the Premio Revelación, sponsored by El Corte Inglés; the PHE Descubrimientos Award, for the best project of the portfolios reviewed; the PHE Award for the Best Photography Book of the Year; the Prize for the best Festival Off show; and the People’s Choice Award, sponsored by El País.

PHotoEspaña is made possible thanks to the support of the following public and private organizations: Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte / Comunidad de Madrid / Ayuntamiento de Madrid / Ministerio de Fomento / Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperación. Cooperación Española / Acción Cultural Española / Junta de Castilla la Mancha / Ayuntamiento de Alcalá de Henares / Ayuntamiento de Alcobendas / Ayuntamiento de Segovia / Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza / Región de Murcia. ICA. Instituto de las Industrias Culturales y de las Artes / Cabildo de Lanzarote. Centros de Arte Cultura y Turismo / Fundación ICO / Fundación Loewe / Fundación Canal / Fundación Telefónica / Samsung /Mahou / Fundación Banco Sabadell / Adobe Stock / D.O. Ribera del Duero / Acciona / El Corte Inglés / Illy / El País / Hotel Iberostar las Letras Gran Vía / Fundación Ankaria / Caixa Forum Madrid / The Folio Club / Canson Infinity / Sago Packaging / British Journal of Photography / Turespaña / Notodo.com / Harper’s Bazaar / Clavoardiendo / Canal 180 / Aesthetica / Instituto Polaco de Cultura / Reino de los Países Bajos / Embajada de la República Federal de Alemania / Fundación Goethe / Embajada de la República de Letonia / Istituto Italiano di Cultura / Embajada de Portugal / Instituto Camões / Casa de Velázquez / Centro Checo / Goethe Institut Madrid / Embajada de Suiza / Embajada de Noruega en La Habana / British Council / Bozar. Centre for Fine Arts Brussels / Museum of Photography Thessaloniki / Le Pavillon Populaire de Montpellier / Live Riga / Hôtel des Arts.

Círculo de Bellas Artes / Real Jardín Botánico-CSIC / Museo ICO / CentroCentro Cibeles de Cultural y Ciudadanía / Fernán Gómez. Centro Cultural de la Villa / Centro Cultural Conde Duque / Sala Canal de Isabel II / Sala de Exposiciones El Águila / Espacio Fundación Telefónica / Museo Nacional del Prado / Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía / Museo del Romanticismo / Teatro Real / Museo Cerralbo / Tabacalera. Espacio Promoción del Arte / Museo del Traje / Museo Lázaro Galdiano / Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. Calcografía Nacional / Casa de América / Biblioteca Nacional de España / Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales / FNAC / Real Sociedad Fotográfica / PIC.A Escuela Internacional Alcobendas PHotoEspaña / Centro de Arte Alcobendas / Centro Cultural Anabel Segura / Centro de Historias / La Lonja / Museo de Albacete / Museo de Ciudad Real / Museo de Cuenca / Palacio del Infantado / Museo de Santa Cruz / La Cárcel. Segovia Centro de Creación / Centro Párraga / The Photographers’ Gallery / Nederlands Fotomuseum / Musée Nicéphore Niépce / Maison Européenne de la Photographie / Central European House of Photography / The Finnish Museum of Photography / Latvian National Museum of Art / Fundación B?c Zmiana / PhotoIreland / Istanbul Modern Photography Gallery / The Lumière Brothers Center for Photography