PHotoEspaña 2011 will take place in Madrid from June 1 to July 24. Lisbon, Cuenca, and Alcalá de Henares will also play host to the Festival. The fourteenth annual festival of photography and the visual arts will offer a program of 70 expositions – 21 in the Official Selection, 6 in OpenPHoto, 11 in other halls, and 32 as part of the Off Festival (Festival Off)– in 61 locations, among them museums, galleries, art centers, and exposition spaces. 370 artists and creators, of 55 nationalities, will be participating.

The Official Selection of PHotoEspaña 2011will be structured around both a thematic selection curated by Gerardo Mosquera, who has assigned it the title Interfaces: Portrait and Communication, and various special projects. The expositions of the Festival will have three other sections: other halls, myriad spaces that will come together as part of PHotoEspaña to promote photography: OpenPHoto Cuenca, which integrates the projects of embassies and foreign cultural institutions, and the Off Festival (Festival Off), which brings together the best works from the major art galleries of Madrid.

Each year, PHotoEspaña relies on the involvement and participation of public and private institutions that in turn enable the organization of over 120 expositions and activities. Owing to the faithful commitment of the Ministry of Culture, the Community of Madrid, and the Municipality of Madrid, over 60 foundations, businesses, embassies, cultural centers, and museums have collaborated; joining their ranks this year are Loewe, CaixaForum Madrid, the National Archeology Museum (Museo Arqueológico Nacional), Samsung, and RENFE. The help of all these organizations affirms the project of PHotoEspaña, through work done online, continued institutional collaboration, and broader cultural cooperation, which includes, in addition, other avenues of affiliations. Trasatlántica PHotoEspaña, a forum for photography and the visual arts that is now in its fourth year of existence, has shored up relationships with institutions in Spain and Latin America. OpenPHoto Cuenca, for its part, works with cultural institutes and foreign embassies.

PHotoEspaña will hold its fourteenth annual festival with steadiness and surety, fostering the involvement and participation of the public in the activities organized by the Festival, which, for another year, extend beyond the traditional dates of the festival itself, from June to July, and take place throughout the year. The trajectory of the last years of the Festival has been oriented toward the creation, expansion, and diversification of programs and activities, an effort that has been bolstered by the loyalty of a broad collection of aficionados of culture and photography. The Association of Friends of PHotoEspaña presently exceeds 1,900 members, who form a group that enjoys a battery of specific activities as well as an exclusive meeting space, the Espacio PHotoEspaña, which hosts activities such as family workshops and specialized courses. Having paid particular attention to the growing general public that enjoys the festival year after year, the organization has increased its educational and professional offerings and has created new formats that integrate different segments of the public, like the intergenerational workshops. PHotoEspaña pays special attention to the promotion of activities on social networks, a critical space for communicating with followers.
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