MADRID.- PHotoEspaña 2010 is underway, for the first time culminating a year-round programme. PHotoEspaña is rounding up the path chosen since it was started as a Festival and which, over 13 years, has developed into a long term project which transcends the summer programme dates, organising activities throughout the year. In this edition there are over 120 activities including exhibitions, photography workshops, portfolio presentations, debates, master classes, guided tours, educational programmes, family workshops, projections and activities in the street.

The consolidation of the teaching, professional and public programmes which are currently a key part of the Festival’s development and structure, make PHotoEspaña an event firmly established in society demonstrated by the more than 500 young people who are currently involved in the PHotoEspaña educational programmes at secondary schools and local authorities.

PHotoEspaña’s international vocation is now a fact, seen in the creation of Trasatlantica, the photography and visual arts forum in Latin American which is now in its second year. The international projection of the activities is firmly demonstrated in the Descubrimientos PHE (Discoveries PHE), sponsored by Brugal Extra Viejo. It has been extended to the call for portfolio presentations which increased in size by 60%, and for the first time in its history has had greater participation from overseas than from home.

PHotoEspaña 2010 will take place from 9th June to 25th July. The 13th of this Photography and Visual Arts Festival will offer a programme including 69 exhibitions, 31 under the Official section, 10 at other venues and 28 under the Off Festival held at 65 exhibition venues including museums, galleries, art centres and exhibition halls in Madrid, Cuenca and Lisbon. 372 artists from 41 countries will be taking part in the Festival. The Official Section, directed by Sérgio Mah - general curator of PHE10 - will develop the theme of Time, and will once again open its doors to guest projects. The Colecção Berardo Museum in Lisbon will take part in the Festival for the third year, with an Official Section exhibition, while the town of Cuenca will once again host OpenPHoto, the exhibition programme consisting of proposals from embassies and cultural institutions from 9 different countries. The Official Section of PH10 will also include the curators Alejandro Castellote, Christian Caujolle, Lynne Cooke, Douglas Crimp, Charles-François Duplain, José Gómez Isla, Laura González Flores, María Iovino, Pascal Letellier, Rafael Levenfeld, Blanca Lleó, Sérgio Mah, Oliva María Rubio, Adam Mazur, Juan Antonio Molina, Santiago Olmo, Grzergorz Piatek, Anka Ptaszkowska, Jorge Ribalta, Emília Tavares, Jaroslaw Trybus, Valentín Vallhonrat and Paul Wombell. The Off Festival, meanwhile, will include the best exhibition ideas from the main art galleries in Madrid. In Alcalá de Henares there will be photography and publishing workshops forming part of the Region of Madrid Campus PHE.

The experience of time in the work of photographers and visual artists
Sérgio Mah, general curator for PHE10, proposes an exhibition programme with a selection of artists and visual work which highlight the experience and perception of time and its direct relationship with photography.

Each image is connected to a moment and a date: the moment it was taken. Photography is tied to time - it can located, discern and file, and based on this idea, it has fulfilled one of the great ambitions of our time: to rationalise time, through an urgency to standardise it, calculate and divide it. If on the one hand photography has contributed to the creation of a rationalised and scientific time, on the other it has configured another more intuitive time, linked to a different duration. Beyond its ability for representation lies the possibility that images produce a time which is sensitive to physical and mental changes.

The programme includes different approaches to time. Exhibitions which highlight nature and the effects of photographic interruption, and what this means when in comes to perceiving movement. Other works are based on ephemeral moments, stressing the instability of the works and their temporality. Others highlight historical speculation, archiving and individual and collective experiences and, finally, the articulation between photography and other image techniques, studying the combinations and paradoxes of time between fixed images and images in movement.

Mobility, instantaneity and simultaneity define our ways of living and our lifestyles, increasingly influenced by technological cadences. Furthermore, globalisation shows us a world tied up in different stages of time: culturally, psychologically and spiritually. For this reason, PHE10 proposes a thematic programme which, using images of time and time of images, reflects on the technical and narrative paradoxes of photography, and aims to intensify perception through an attentive and reflective observation. In this way, it searches for the figure of the pensative spectator, different from the hurried, uninterested and alienated spectator. Despite the tendency to value speed and acceleration as distinctive requirements for post modern societies, it is important to point to the existence of new artistic inclinations which tend towards contrary rhythms, favouring a slower and interactive relationship with time, reconciling the work of perception with the rhythms of thought and memory.

With this thematic programme, Sérgio Mah closes his three-year cycle as the curator of PHotoEspaña. In the past two editions of as curator, he drew up programmes reflecting on Place (PHE08) and Daily Life (PHE09).

Exhibitions developing the theme of Time and related themes
At the BBVA /AZCA exhibition hall there will be 80 photographs, a documentary and work materials of the scientist and electronic engineer Harold Edgerton, creator of the mythical image Milk Drop Coronet. Edgerton invented the technology which allowed us to photograph movements not perceived by the human eye, and in doing so he immortalised ephemeral moments such as bullets passing through playing cards, bird in flight and athletes' jumps.

Fernán Gómez Theatre. Art Centre / Banco Santander Foundation present Between Times. Instants, intervals, durations, a revealing exhibition of over 200 works including photographs, video installations and films by 17 artists who have made time one of the fundamental themes of contemporary photography. The large collection PHE10 exhibition includes works by: Ignasi Aballí, Daniel Blaufuks, Iñaki Bonillas, David Claerbout, Tacita Dean, Ceal Floyer, Joachim Koester, Jochen Lempert, Mabel Palacín, Steven Pippin, Paul Pfeiffer, Michael Snow, Clare Strand, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Jeff Wall, Michael Wesely and Erwin Wurm. They all show and intense and extensive artistic reflection on the experience of time.

The exhibition Urban Lyrics. Photographs 1936-1991, by Helen Levitt, can be seen at the ICO Collection Museum (MUICO). The first anthology of the artist since her death last year, it includes 120 images and highlights how Levitt’s photographs have configured the aesthetics of street photography with their ability to suspend the moment, fixing tiny details and interrupting the flow of reality. The exhibition is completed with the screening of the film In the Street the precursor to independent film.

Casa de América presents the exhibitions Difficult Loves by Adriana Lestido, a key figure in contemporary Argentinean photography. This is a chronological retrospective covering her 30 year career. 160 black and white photographs in a documentary style, from the series Children's Hospital, Adolescent Mothers, Imprisoned Women, Mothers and Daughters, Love and Villa Gesell, in which she deals with social issues in a raw, heart-rending way.

At the Abierto por Obras space at Matadero Madrid, there will be 10 film screenings and a video installation made exclusively for PHE10 by Roman Signer. The works, selected in line with the characteristics of the Matadero exhibition space, document the tension, suspense and speed of the Swiss artist’s actions, characterised by his particular handing of time.

The Reina Sofía National Art Centre is holding, to mark PHE10, Manhattan: Mixed Use, a collective exhibition on the use and images taken in New York City at the start of the period of intense deindustrialisation of the 1970s, with the counterpoint of more recent works by artists who, fully up to date with the practices of their predecessors, continue to see the city’s aesthetic potential. The exhibition includes the work of artists such as Gordon Matta-Clark, Zoe Leonard, Helen Levitt, Bernd & Hilla Becher, and films by Andy Warhol and Peter Hutton among others.

The Picasso Hall at the Círculo de Bellas Artes will host The art of light, and new production dealing with the creations of Lázsló Moholgy-Hagy, focusing on the period in which he developed his theory of the art of light. Over 200 works, including paintings, black and white and colour photography, films and graphic design elements, which reflect the vital importance of the artist for 20th century art. At the Goya Hall, there will be an exhibition by Óscar Muñoz, Becoming air: four suggestive audiovisual installations dealing with themes such as temporality, the ephemeral, memory and the impact of time, using ephemeral materials which fade under the effects of time, sun or air. Finally, the Minerva Hall will be hosting the latest work by Fernando Sánchez Castillo, National Episode. Tactics, a production completed exclusively for the Festival in which the author develops the habitual themes of his artistic career: collective historic memory and politics in Spain.

The Royal Botanical Gardens - CSIC will present two exhibitions sponsored by the Telefónica Foundation. Memorials is a work by Bleda & Rosa, twenty previously unpublished works taken in the cities of Washington and Jerusalem which reflect on how the memory becomes monumentalised and influences towns and cities. Jem Southam, meanwhile, presents some thirty works from the series Rock Falls, Ponds and Painter's Pool, in which we can see the patient contemplation and observation of the artist of the British landscape.

The City Museum will host the exhibition Prophecies, Photographic Collection of the University of Navarre Foundation a dialogue between around a hundred masterpieces from 19th century Spanish photography and works by 12 contemporary artists such as Gabriele Basilico, Joan Fontcuberta, Roland Fischer and Pierre Gonnord which takes a look at the archives of the Photographic Collection of the University of Navarre Foundation, currently consisting of over 10,000 photographs.

Lisbon will host PHotoEspaña for the third consecutive year, with the Colecção Berardo Museum offering an exhibition by the New York artist Collier Schorr. 60 photographs and 3 videos from the work developed by Shorr over more than two decades in a village in the south of Germany. Combining the roles of photographer, anthropologist and researcher, the artist has created a selection of photographs in which she mixes documentary with fiction.

Photography, protagonist of Cine PHE
The Spanish Filmoteque - Cine Doré will host Cine PHE, a cycle sponsored by the Vice-presidency and Council for Culture and Sport of the Regional Government. This year it revolved complete around photography. The cycle is a collection of films which develop the theme along three lines. For some the professional photographer is the protagonist; in other the idea and the experience of photography constitute the narrative thread, and finally, some films use a visualisation similar to photography. During June and July there will be screenings of films such as Blow-Up, La Jetée, The Carabineri, The Camerman, Blade Runner or The Panic Photograph.

A range of exhibitions in the guest project section
The Regional Government of Madrid presents, at the Canal de Isabel II centre, the work of Isabel Muñoz, Isabel Muñoz: love and ecstasy, organised to mark the obtaining of the Regional Government of Madrid Photography Award 2006. In this exhibition, Muñoz focuses her camera on spiritual ceremonies in Syria, Iran, Iraq and Turkey. Alcalá 31 will present a collection of over 100 photographs and publications by Juergen Teller, one of the most influential photographers of the current scene, who has created the brand image for Marc Jacobs and Yves Saint Laurant, and has photographed personalities such as Charlotte Ramplling or Cindy Sherman. The El Águila Complex will be the backdrop for the exhibition by Alejandra Laviada, winner of the Descubrimientos PHE (Discoveries PHE) Brugal Extra Viejo Award at PHotoEspaña 2009. The exhibition includes images from the winning portfolio, Foto Esculturas and from series such as Typologies, Juárez, Hotel Barner and Holes, in which her interest in themes such as the construction and destruction of a space and the life cycles of places and object becomes clear.

The Cervantes Institute will present a selection of the work included in the portfolio presentations held in Guatemala City and São Paulo. Ten Latin America photographers form part of Concealments, a collection of the most innovative work presented, which shows the trends in contemporary Latin American photography. The Madrid branch of the Cervantes Institute will present the exhibition Everything I ever loved is part of you, which looks at part of the history of Spanish video art with works by Ana Laura Aláez, Manu Arregui, Isaki Lacuesta and Enrique Marty, among others. 30 works which recreate the intensity of memories.

In the lobby of Matadero Madrid there will be a selection of The Best Photography Books of the Year, an exhibition including the books short listed for the PHotoEspaña Prize which recognises the work of publishers as a tool for disseminating photography.

The Circo Price Theatre will present, in the Malabar Hall, the works of the finalists of the European Commission Photography Award, held to mark the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009. The work of the 29 photographers from 16 countries making up the exhibition shows their vision of the future in Europe and the rest of the world. The Trapecio Hall will host 50 photographs by Eustachy Kossakowski, the photographer from the theatrical and artistic avant-guard of Poland in the 1950s and 1960s, who documented the performances of Kantor and the theatrical performances by Grotowski. The exhibition is completed with images from his period in France, when he started to capture the decisive moment and study lighting effects.

OpenPHoto offers exhibitions from 9 countries in Cuenca
Cuenca will be hosting PHotoEspaña for the fourth consecutive year, and will once again host OpenPHoto a selection of exhibitions proposed by embassies and cultural institutes from overseas. This initiative, sponsored by the Local Council of Cuenca, the Provincial Government of Cuenca, the Consortium of the town of Cuenca, Cuenca European City of Culture 2016 and the Regional Joint Government of Castilla-La Mancha, will convert the town into an international meeting point. 9 countries will take part in this year’s exhibitions: Germany, Flanders, France, Mexico, the Central European Cultural Platform, Poland, Portugal, Rumania and the United Kingdom.

At the Cultural Centre - Open University at the University of Castilla- La Mancha there will be an exhibition by the Central European Cultural Platform, Modernisation. This collective exhibition, through the lenses of photographers from Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, looks at the radical change seen in the urban landscape of Central Europe in the second half of the 29th Century, focusing on the architectural renewal of the Modernist utopia.

The Rumanian Cultural Institute in Madrid presents, at the José María Cruz Novillo Art Centre, the work Steampunk Autochrome by Nicu Ilfoveanu. An exhibition which portrays urban landscapes with a heavy autobiographical meaning combined with past and present photographic techniques, using a box camera with which he manages to capture reality in a strange fashion.

At the Antonio Perez Foundation there will be the exhibition Coming together, by Claire Chevrier and Patrick Tosani, proposed by the French Embassy. Here we can see the radically different approach of two artists to the same reality: the cities of Rome and El Cairo, creating a dialogue about urban development and architecture, between two photographers of opposite techniques: workshop photography and street photography. There will also be an exhibition proposed by the British Council in Spain, Shared Dreams by Juan Valbuena and Gabriella Sancisi. This exhibition presents two different perspectives on sport as an integrating element which promotes multiculturalism and the integration of the immigrant population in Spain and the United Kingdom.

The Antonio Saura Foundation. Casa Zavala will present Axioms by Tamara Lorenz, proposed by the Goethe-Institut Madrid, which complements the exhibitions Good Perspectives: young German photographers, on show at the Madrid branch. Lorenz’s work comes close to objects and generates ingenuous and ironic compositions, and an element of strangeness. At the same venue there will be an exhibition by Gerardo Suter, organised by the Mexican Institute, which includes 55 photographs and four videos reflecting on the them of the city, and discover the symbolic, temporary and cultural components making up both the large Mexican megalopolis and pre-Hispanic settlements. Finally, there will be a collective exhibition, Battle of Shadows, presented by the Portuguese Embassy and the Camões Institute. This is an exhibition which represents how Portuguese photography of the 1950s debated between the concept of art for art’s sake or the search for a social and humanistic culture. More than 70 works in the exhibition are taken from the Lisbon Modern Art Museum and the Museum of Neorealism in Vila Franca de Xira, and illustrate the diversity of Portuguese visual arts of the time.

The Semana Santa Museum in Cuenca will present the unfinished work of Konrad Pustola Unfinished Houses. Organised by the Polish Institute of Culture, the exhibition includes large scale photographs showing the consequences of the economic recession in Poland during the 1990s.

Finally, the will be an exhibition, Women in Rural KwaZulu Natal, a work in which the photographer Benny Gool and the duo NAMEN photograph cooperation projects run by the Flemish Government in South Africa. The images show how the women in KwaZulu-Natal learn to earn themselves a living through basket weaving.

PHE Encounters looks at Spanish photography: its past, present and future
PHE Encounters the programme of conferences, round tables and debate organised by PHotoEspaña and the Ministry of Culture is directed by Alberto Anaut. For three days, from 10th to 12th June, the Auditorium at the Ministry of Culture will bring together some thirty photographers, curators and experts in visual arts who will assess visual arts in our country, past, present and future, in relation to creation on the national and international scene.

Photographers such as Clemente Bernard, Bleda y Rosa, Juan Manuel Castro Prieto, Matías Costa, Ricky Dávila, Joan Fontcuberta, Alberto García-Álix, Cristina García Rodero, Pierre Gonnord, Cristóbal Hara, David Jiménez, Chema Madoz, Ramón Masats, Isabel Muñoz, José Manuel Navia, Leopoldo Pomés, Txema Salvans, Marta Soul and Miguel Trillo. The experts Juan Manuel Bonet, Rafael Doctor, Alejandro Castellote and Christian Caujolle will be taking part in PHE Encounters too. The programme will also include presentations of works by Ricard Terré, Estudio Alfonso, Pere Català Pic, Francesc Català-Roca, Josep Renaú and José Ortiz Echagüe.

Over 1,800 portfolios were received for the presentation called by PHotoEspaña
Descubrimientos PHE (Discoveries PHE) Brugal Extra Viejo received a total of 1,851 applications from 76 countries, 1,380 in Madrid and 471 in São Paulo and Guatemala City. This is a 60% increase on 2009, and represents an important step ahead for the programme, which for the first time has greater participation from overseas than from home. Just 70 selected finalists will take part in an activity held at the El Águila Complex in Madrid. There, the participants will receive ideas and advice from professional such as James Reid James Reid, photography editor of Wallpaper, Sandra Philips, chief curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Marta Ponsa, director of artistic projects at the Jeu de Paume in Paris; Brett Rogers, director of The Photographer’s Gallery in London; Agnès Sire, director of the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris and Miguel Von Haffe, director of the CGAC-Galician Modern Art Centre. The candidates selected in the three calls for entries are in the running for the Descubrimientos PHE (Discoveries PHE) Brugal Extra Viejo Award, which consists of a solo exhibition in the next edition of PHotoEspaña.

Campus PHE: photography and publishing workshops in Alcalá de Henares
PHotoEspaña and the Regional Government of Madrid, in collaboration with the Local Council of Alcalá de Henares, through the council organisation Promoción de Alcalá S.A. offer year-round training programmes in photography and visual arts through the Madrid Region Campus PHE. Workshops and Master Classes are held in the Former Santa María la Rica Hospital in Alcalá de Henares. 22nd to 24th April, Campus PHE: Book publishing will offer advice to photographers regarding the publishing, design and overall concept of their book projects. This year, these workshops will be run by Cristóbal Hara, Gigi Gianuzzi (Editor of Trolley Books) and Markus Schaden (Editor of Schaden). A new addition this year will be the presentation of participants’ projects at the El Águila Complex.

Campus PHE: Great Masters will be held, also in Alcalá de Henares, from 30th June to 3rd July Photographers such as Pieter Hugo and Adriana Lestido will share their professional tips and techniques with the students in week-long photography workshops, and will offer master classes free of charge and open to the public.

PHotoEspaña organises educational programmes for children and young people
PHotoEspaña and the Banco Santander Foundation are organising an educational programme directed at 320 students from eight secondary schools in Madrid. Students at the American School of Madrid, Colegio Concertado Nuestra Señora de Montserrat, Colegio Lourdes Fuhem, Colegio María Inmaculada, IES Grande Covían, IES Ramiro de Maeztu, IES San Isidro and Scuola Statale Italiana di Madrid will have the chance to come closer to the work of great contemporary photographers to mark the exhibition Between Times. Instants, intervals, durations.

The Local Council of Alcalá de Henares, through the council organisation Promoción de Alcalá S.A. and PHotoEspaña are organising photography workshops for young people aged between 14 and 19. These courses, which are held every Saturday until June, are interactive and educations, and will involve these young people in the discovery and use of photography.

Canal Foundation: Photographic Gymkhana and workshops for children and young people
The Canal Foundation and PHotoEspaña are organising the contest Madrid is different. From 12th April to 29th May, the participants will rediscover Madrid in photographs, showing new views of traditional customs and places, using humour irony and optimism as their tools. Participants can aspire to four prizes, one of 1,000 and three of 500 euros. The Canal Foundation is also organising the Saturday workshops, photography workshops for children and young people in the gardens and elevated area of the Foundation, allowing the younger members of the family to understand some of the concepts and principles of digital photography with the help of photographers specialising in teaching.

Camper visits and family workshops
PHotoEspaña is offering visitors to the Festival the Camper Visits, guided tours which are free of charge and last approximately an hour and a half, helping visitors to discover all the details of the exhibitions in the Official Section, accompanied by guides specialising in photography. The Festival also offers the possibility of organising personalised group tours. There will also be family photography workshops on Sundays from 13th June to 11th July in different exhibition venues. Young and old can visit the exhibitions, complementing their day out with activities and workshops which make photography more accessible to the general public.

PHotoEspaña in the Street: photography for all
The street programme for PHotoEspaña will fill Madrid with cameras, photos and photographers on 18th June. The Night of Photography activities will start with the Mahou PHotoMarathon, which will start at 6 pm at the Canal Foundation. The route of the PhotoRunners, who will have to photograph the city based on a theme put forward by the organisers, will finish with an open air celebration in the Plaza de Santa Ana, where the best images from the Mahou PHotoMarathon will be on show, with photo projections set to music. The other Festival locations will also take part in this activity, opening their doors out of hours and organising guided tours with artists and curators. In this edition of PHotoEspaña in the Street the Central Office of the Local Council of Madrid will be celebrating the centenary of the Gran Vía with the Gran Vía contest: the sky over Madrid. PHotoEspaña calls on photographers who wish to portray this mythical street from the rooftops. The selected applicants will be able to take their photos on 17th June at nightfall over the centre of the city. These images will form part of a projection which will be included on the programme for the Night of Photography.

PHotoEspaña awards the best of the national and internacional photograph
PHotoEspaña delivers eight prizes that recognize the professional career and the contribution to the world of photography of specialists and professionals, and also the best expositions of the Festival. PHotoEspaña Baume & Mercier Award, endowed with 12,000€ for the purchase of works and an exclusive Eduardo Arroyo´s trophy; Bartolomé Ros Award for the best Spanish professional career in photography, endowed with 12,000€; Descubrimientos PHE Brugal Extra Viejo Award, whose winner´s exhibition will be included in the Official Section of the Festival’s next edition; Room Mate Hotels Revelation Award, endowed with 8,000€ for acquisition of works, recognises the work of a Spanish photographer under age 35; Best Photography Book of the Year Award (national and international categories) and The Outstanding Publishing House of the Year Award; Off Festival Saab Prize for the gallery that has shown the best exhibition in the Off Festival, endowed with 8,000€ for the purchase of works; People’s Choice M2-El Mundo Award, given by the visitors to their favourite exhibition; and PHotoEspaña OjodePez Human Values Award, that recognise a work of documentary photography that highlights the values of solidarity, ethics, justice or effort.

PHotoEspaña Masters
PHotoEspaña and the European University of Madrid are organising a programme to train professional in the cultural industry. The PHotoEspaña Masters in Photography: Artistic Theory and Projects is set up base on theory and technical modules lasting over 500 hours, taught by a team of tutors specialising in cultural management, university education, politics, public administration, private enterprise, design, advertising, audiovisual communications, marketing, art, criticism and creation. The PHotoEspaña Masters in Photography provides future photography professionals with the basic knowledge for understanding images. The programme is completed with professional work experience in businesses in the sector and key public and private institutions.

PHotoEspaña launches a new publishing section: PHE Books PHotoEspaña is renewing its publications with the creation of PHE Books. This new collection will present the thematic publications for PHotoEspaña 2010, which will develop the key issues of the theme of the Festival based on a selection of images by participating artists, and a collection of texts signed by the general curator of PHE10, Sérgio Mah, and other authors such as Eduardo Cadava, Damian Sutton, Ulrich Baer, Jorge Ribalta, Mary Ann Doanne and Raymond Bellour. PHE Books will also publish the PHE10 Guide, and a specific publication presenting the works of the finalists for the Descubrimientos PHE (Discoveries PHE) Brugal Extra Viejo Prize. Four art centres will also accompany their exhibitions with a catalogue presenting the highlights of the events, and texts and essays for reference. These are Between Times. Instants, intervals, durations; Urban Lyrics. Helen Levitt and The Art of Light. László Moholy-Nagy. All these publication will be available at the bookshops and official points of sale at the Festival.