PHotoEspaña 2008 will base its exhibition program on the theme of Place. The Festival will include new proposals and initiatives intended for all visitors. From 4th June to 27th July, PHEO8 will host 69 exhibitions: 32 at the Official Section and 37 at the Off Festival, with works by 230 artists from different disciplines and 35 different countries. Place is the main theme running through the artistic proposal for this edition, which will form part of the Official Section of the Festival, curated by Sérgio Mah. The artistic proposal will open its program with the guest exhibitions and will close with Public Programmes consisting of multidisciplinary activities. The Festival will present the key works of contemporary authors such as Javier Vallhonrat, Thomas Demand, Roni Horn and Florian Maier-Aichen, as well as that of masters of photography such as W. Eugene Smith, Bill Brandt and Robert Smithson. PHotoEspaña also comes to Portugal with two exhibitions: the Museo Berardo in Lisbon will host the Utopia collective, and as part of the Allgarve 2008 Programme, the Museo de Portimão will house the works of Ignasi Aballi Cuenca will also host four exhibitions by Francesc Català-Roca, Juan López, Esteban Pastorino and Marcellvs L. Cine PHE will run a film cycle at the Filmoteca Española devoted to Tsai Ming-Liang, the director of The Taste of Watermelon and The Hole The Complejo El Águila will be the focal point for emerging photography with the viewing of this year's Descubrimientos PHE portfolios and exhibitions. Campus PHE Comunidad de Madrid will bring together masters of photography such as Paul Graham, Guillaume Herbaut and Simon Norfolk in Aranjuez. Photographers and specialists such as Boris Groys, Joachim Schmid, Daniel Canogar, Pedro Meyer, Clément Chéroux and the AES+F collective will take part in Encuentros PHE, organized by Joan Fontcuberta Fundación Canal will become a photographic stage with ¡Retrátate!, an initiative in which authors such as Isabel Muñoz, Miguel Trillo and Luis de las Alas will take pictures of the public visiting at the Fundación Canal from May 31st to June 1st. The Barrio de las Letras will be the stage for La Noche de la Fotografía on 13th June, with the participation of Andreu Buenafuente‘s group, Captura.org. www.phedigital.com has been reinvented as the portal for current international photography with interviews, recommendations, specialized documentation and personally produced audiovisuals. H.R.H. la Infanta Doña Elena will open PHotoEspaña on 4th June at 11:30 a.m., at the Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid. PHotoEspaña 2008 will take place from 4th June to 27th July. The Festival of Photography and Visual Arts is offering at this eleventh edition 69 exhibitions: 32 for the Official Section and 37 for the Festival Off. It is on show at 61 exhibition spaces, including museums, art galleries, art centres and exhibition rooms. PHE08 will recoup a number of approaches to the theme Place as the theme for the artistic proposal for this edition at the hand of Sérgio Mah, curator of the Festival. The Official Section of PHotoEspaña will include exhibitions by great masters and contemporary artists who will enter into dialogue with this approach, but it will also open its doors to guest projects, exhibitions from international photography award winners and private art collections. Meanwhile the Off Festival will bring together the best projects presented for the contest by the main art galleries in Madrid. This new edition of the Festival will take a new step in including fresh artistic proposals off the main theme and proposals with a comprehensive pedagogical and professional program, articulated around three key platforms: Campus PHE – workshops, master classes and seminars –, Descubrimientos PHE – portfolio viewings – and Encuentros PHE – debates about photography. PHE08 will propose new incentives for all tastes. Through the programs for all visitors, photography will take different approaches, reaching out to young and old, experts and beginners, amateurs and professionals. Guided tours of exhibitions, children's workshops, photographic tours, open-air films on La Noche de la Fotografía, the popular PhotoMarathon or the setting-up of a photography set where one can be captured on film by outstanding photographers prior to the official opening of the Festival; these are just some of the most attractive proposals of this initiative. Madrid, Cuenca, Aranjuez and, this year, Portugal. The increasing international spread of PhotoEspaña raised the interest of the Portuguese Government, which has joined the Official Section through its Ministry of Finance and Innovation, organising two exhibitions in Lisbon and Algarve under the general theme of the Festival.