The PhotoEspaña International Festival of Photography and Visual Arts, presented each June in a different part of Spain, has appointed a Latin American curator as its coordinator for the next three editions. The choice fell to the prestigious Cuban critic and curator Gerardo Mosquera, who recently organized the international exhibition “El Patio de mi casa” in Cordoba, Spain, as well as “Trastlántica” with critics and photography scholars.

Founder of Havana´s Wifredo Lam Center and manager of the first art biennals of the Third World organized by the director Lliliam Yanes´s team, Mosquera was one of the most important promoters of new Cuban art and a strong advocate for post-exotic concepts in Latin American art. By the mid 1990s, Mosquera had curated exhibitions at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and had served as an advisor to the Rijksakademie van Beeldenden Kunsten in Amsterdam. His extensive theoretical oeuvre includes such works as El Diseño comenzó en Octubre (on the Soviet avant-garde of the 1920s) and Beyond the Fantastic, Contemporary Art Criticism from Latin America. He is currently working on the project “Arte contemporáneo en patios de Quito,” with ten national and international artists.

With Mosquera, PhotoEspaña is looking to widen its international scope by expanding the range of its exhibitions. PhotoEspaña director Claude Bussac said: ”We have chosen a profile pointing to a multidisciplinary discourse and we hope to have the opportunity to collaborate with international institutions. Mosquera has been working on the next festival for some years but, although we don´t want to make it public, his curriculum can give us a clue about where to walk. “

The economic crisis in Spain has led to serious cuts in governmental budgets, a fact announced by the Spanish president; further cuts will be made next year. However, the recently ended 2010 edition of PhotoEspaña was able to reach out to different sectors of the general public despite an austerity budget. It is a working style that Mosquera will undoubtedly improve upon by strengthening relationships with contemporary artists internationally.