MADRID.- PHotoEspaña 2013 officially closes on Sunday July 28. However, 17 of the 74 exhibitions that are part of this year's program will remain open until late August or early September. According to data collected to date, the XVI Photography and Visual Arts Festival exceeds 600,000 visitors, a figure expected to increase in the next month.

In the words of the PHE director, Claude Bussac, this figure confirms that "in a particularly difficult year in terms of budget, PHotoEspaña has managed to maintain its structure and offer. The exhibition program has maintained its size and quality, and we have been able to offer a number of activities for all ages."

PHE13 has been held in Madrid, Alcala de Henares, Alcobendas, Cuenca, Zaragoza, Lanzarote and Prague thanks to the support of over 60 organizations from the public sector to private institutions and brands. "Our goals for this year was to expand our map, both geographically and temporally and the results, in this sense, are very positive. We have had the support of members who have made it possible for the Festival to be enjoyed in more and more countries and cities. Many institutions have joined our proposals making them their own and, simultaneously, PHE has been extended over time, becoming a cultural event that visitors can enjoy during the summer," says Claude Bussac.

The exhibition program PHotoEspaña 2013 was composed of 74 exhibitions in art centers, museums, galleries and cultural spaces in which 328 artists from 42 countries have participated. Gerardo Mosquera has completed his term as the general curator of PHE with a proposal entitled Body. Eros and Politics. In this sense, Claude Bussac states that "we would like to acknowledge Gerardo's excellence in all areas of his work as general curator in the Festival.

PHotoEspaña's next edition will take place between June and July 2014 and will involve a change in its approach. PHE14 with no longer hold the thematic proposals that it has been offering since its first edition to begin working around geographical areas. This approach will continue for the next three Festival editions, for which different curators will be invited to develop proposals focusing on Spain, Latin America and Europe. PHotoEspaña 2014 will address Spanish photography in a monographic way.

Until then and throughout the Fall, PhotoEspaña will develop projects across the Atlantic. In October PHotoEspaña.BR will be launched, an annual festival created in collaboration with the SESC (Social Service Trade). This project will expand the map of PHE in Latin America through the organization of exhibitions, professional meetings, photography workshops, lectures, discussion panels, portfolio viewings, guided tours, family workshops, guided tours and projections at the Consolação SESC in the Higienópolis neighborhood of São Paulo.

The Transatlantica Program, which promotes meetings between professionals and job networks in the field of photography and visual arts of Latin America will organize, with the support of AECID, a portfolio review in Venezuela.