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Du 1er juin au 24 juillet se tiendra à Madrid l'édition 2011 du festival PHotoEspaña, un des plus grands festivals européens dédiés à la photographie (66 expositions, 370 artistes dont Cindy Sherman, Dayanita Singh, Hans-Peter Feldman..., le tout réparti dans 57 lieux) dont le thème est cette année Interfaces: Portraiture and Communication, une exploration du genre du portrait. Nous vous en détaillons ici le contenu. Pour plus d'informations, rendez-vous sur : http://www.phe.es/

The fourteenth annual PHotoEspaña Festival of Photography and Visual Arts will be held in Madrid starting on June 1 through July 24, 2011. In addition to the Spanish capital, there will be other locations hosting Festival exhibitions and activities in Lisbon, Cuenca, and Alcalá de Henares.

PHotoEspaña 2011 presents a program of 66 photography expositions in 57 different spaces (including museums, galleries, arts centers, and exhibition halls) in which 370 artists and creators of some 55 nationalities will be participating.

The Official Selection of PHotoEspaña 2011 is dedicated to the theme Interfaces: Portraiture and Communication, chosen by lead curator Gerardo Mosquera. The thematic section of the festival will deal with the portrait—one of the most diverse and important genres in photography—treating it in the context of communication and interaction. One topic of exploration will be the face as a zone of interaction, exploring the limits and tensions stemming from this communication. With its obvious emphasis on photography, the curated portion will nonetheless not be limited to this concern alone; rather it will also open onto different media and will take up in its program new tendencies that seek to expand the exposition as a more experimental space, open to changing events, processes, and experiences. This will include interactive projects, which extend beyond the exhibition halls and into the community and onto the internet.

Along these lines, PHotoEspaña 2011 has commissioned expositions of artists such as Thomas Ruff, Cindy Sherman, Alfredo Jaar, Ron Galella, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Shilpa Gupta, Mona Hatoum, Dayanita Singh, Adrian Paci, Péter Forgács, Lucas Sâmaras, and Kan Xuan, among many others. The exposition programming of the Festival is complemented by Special Projects and Other Halls which will feature important work beyond the parameters of the main thematic program, as will the Off Festival, which brings together some of the most important art galleries in Madrid that join PHotoEspaña with photography projects organized specially for the occasion.

 © Liliana Angulo, Black Utopic, 2001.

In his first year as artistic director of PHotoEspaña, Gerardo Mosquera proposes a panoply of expositions that will develop the theme of Interfaces: Portrait and Communication. The thematic section of PH11 will pay special attention to the portrait, whose fundamental element is the face, principal expression of the identity of the individual and the nexus of identification, character, and personality. The portrait combines these qualities and includes, as well, the position of the portraitist, who modulates or transforms the identity and message of the face by dint of the meaning she hopes to convey, and the identity of the viewer, who then interprets that message in accordance with her own cultural expectations and conventions. Certainly the face is a mechanism of communication, and photography has captured this communication because of its capacity to freeze expressions and order them in time. It is for this reason that there has been such a profusion of portraits in contemporary life; the face is photographed because it is a zone of contact and exchange. In this sense, the concept of interfaces is apropos, as it emerged at the end of the 19th century as a reference to a surface that established a common border among different bodies and regions. Connected in the 1960s to the language of computer programming, its etymology (inter + face) alludes precisely to the exchange among faces. In PHE11, the phrase is invoked to suggest the communicative powers of the face: faces as spaces that touch [and can be entered into] and as spaces where information can be shared or exchanged, facilitating an interaction between independent, and sometimes contrary, entities.

Cindy Sherman
Untitled (ABCDE), 1975 / 1985
© Cindy Sherman / SAMMLUNG VERBUND, Vienna

PHotoEspaña 2011 is centered on the portrait – one of the vastest and most important genres of photography – treating it in terms of the notions of communication and interconnection. The Festival will explore the face as a zone of interaction, exploring the limits and friction arising from this communication. Obviously focused on photography, the curated selection will not be reduced to this medium alone, rather it will open onto other media and feature new trends that approach the exposition as a more experimental space, open to events, processes, and experiences, including projects outside the exposition halls that are interactive and which will reach the community directly and take place on the internet.

PHotoEspaña pays particular attention to the promotion of photography and the visual arts; toward that end, it organizes over 60 related activities: photography workshops, portfolio showings, debates, master classes, guided tours, educational programs, family and intergenerational workshops, projections and street activities. The festival also promotes public participation with activities outside of the exhibition halls, taking to the Internet as a vital space through which to hold various contests and online expositions.

PHotoEspaña relies each year on the involvement and support of public and private institutions. In addition to support provided by the Ministry of Culture, the Community of Madrid, and the Municipality of Madrid is the collaboration of over 60 foundations, businesses, embassies, cultural centers, and museums.