How did PHE get its start and how has it evolved in recent years?
PHotoEspaña was launched in 1998 with the mission of being a festival produced by society.
From then until now it has worked along these lines, fulfilling the festival’s social responsibility
to its society and audience. For this reason, PHotoEspaña brings together in a single festival an
outstanding-quality exhibition programme which encompasses internationally prestigious artists
in the field of the visual arts, coupled with activities that foster the creation of networks of
relationships (Discoveries, Campus, Encounters). In recent years, PHotoEspaña has also fostered
its international outreach by creating Trasatlántica PHotoEspaña, a forum for photography and the
visual arts in Latin America whose second edition will be held in 2011, and by creating OpenPHoto,
a showcase for the proposals from foreign embassies and cultural institutes which is being held for the
second year in a row in Cuenca.
What is PHotoEspaña’s main goal? What impact do you think you have among collectors
and the public at large?
In the past ten years, PHotoEspaña has managed to occupy a prime place in the world of photography
and art. Today it is a key event for photography professionals and fans because of its comprehensive
programme that includes exhibitions and educational and professional programmes. Every year
PHotoEspaña gathers together more than half a million people who somehow participate in its extensive
programming. With regard to collecting, in Spain we have witnessed how photography collecting is on
the rise, although it is still somewhat limited. Today it is very difficult to find a contemporary art
collection that does not includephotography. There are many art galleries that work exclusively with
photography and video, which reflects collectors’ interests.
We are confident that PHotoEspaña is contributing to the rising interest in photograph collecting.
With regard to the recent participation by foreign countries, how do you think this initiative has
fared? Has it brought a more open/international/universal facet? It has proven to be a key
contribution to PHotoEspaña that has given us enormous satisfaction. With our first international
incursion in 2008, with exhibitions in Lisbon and Paris, we started along a pathway that has led
us to organise an exclusive section just for international works, OpenPHoto, and a forum on
photography and the visual arts in Latin America, Trasatlántica, in conjunction with AECID.
To PHE, all of these initiatives signal the creation of highly enriching professional bonds.
What are the countries that you invited to participate this year? What were your selection
criteria?
In the case of OpenPHoto, it is an open show in which a committee chooses the proposals
from embassies and cultural institutions that will participate in the programme. Lisbon will once
again be the site of PHotoEspaña because of our close relationship with the Berardo Museum,
and in the case of Trasatlántica, the participating countries are chosen in conjunction with
AECID.
What are the essential trends or new talents that stand out this year?
PHotoEspaña directly supports emerging photography, and to do so it features an exclusive
activity, Discoveries PHE Brugal Extra Viejo. In this activity, 70 handpicked photographers
will participate in an encounter with photography professionals (curators, graphic editors,
photograph conservators, etc.) who will advise them on their professional projects.
They will then all be eligible for the Discoveries PHE Brugal Extra Viejo prize, which consists
of an exhibition at the next edition of the festival. The El Águila Complex in Madrid will feature
a display of the works by Alejandra Laviada, the winner of the 2009 prize.
Apart from the official section, can you tell us something about the other sections in the festival?
For example: OpenPhoto in Cuenca, Photography Night, FestivalOFF and PhotoMaratón?
OpenPHoto is a meeting point in Cuenca for the exhibition proposals from embassies and cultural institutes.
This year it will consist of nine exhibitions from Germany, France, Mexico, Poland,Romania, the United
Kingdom, Flanders, Portugal and the Central European Platform.
Photography Night is a huge picture festival in Madrid, and it will be held on the 18th of June with activities
for all audiences in the city centre. FestivalOFF brings together the proposals from 28 art galleries,
which thus join PHotoEspaña 2010. Finally, PHotoMaratón Mahou is a photographic gymkhana in which,
based on aproposal made by the organisers, PHoto- Runners will take pictures that will be part
of a screening in Plaza de Santa Ana. The participants will also be eligible for several prizes.
PHotoMaratón Mahou will also be held on the 18th of June as part of the Photography Night activities.
What other activities will the festival sponsor?
You can consult all the activities at the website www.phedigital.con.
Photography is still evolving towards new media.
How can these new digital and cinematographic values and installations be included?
PHotoEspaña is a Festival of Photography and Visual Arts, and as such it aims to include
all pictorial trends, with a special space reserved for each of them.
How do galleries and artists come to participate in PHE? Who are the curators this
year and what are they trying to achieve?
The job of the general curator of PHotoEspaña is to choose the exhibitions that will be part
of the thematic section of the festival, which is devoted to Time this year. The general curator
of PHotoEspaña is Sérgio Mah, and this year he is proposing an exhibition programme with a
selection of artists and visual works that stress the experience and perception of time and
photography’s direct relationship with it. •
