La Fábrica is turning twenty. Founded in 1994 by Alberto Anaut, the cultural management company has become an internationally recognized reference in the sector with a business model based on a collaboration between the private and public spheres and a firm commitment to the quality of content, creativity, talent, design and communication. During these two decades, La Fábrica has promoted projects involving the entire panoply of the arts with the support of artists and the dedication of our professional team which currently consists of more than 50 staff members and a network of more than 200 collaborators. More than 300 clients, among them public institutions, companies and brands have placed their trust in an initiative that has produced more than 100 projects in 40 countries with the participation of six million people, and whose activities have been the subject of 30,000 reviews in the national and international press.
Magazines and Books
La Fábrica began its activity with the launch of the magazine Matador, a radical commitment to quality, content and design. A cult object offering artist portfolios, a unique wine and original music in every issue; an yearly publication designated by a different letter for each issue. Since then, La Fábrica has published numerous periodicals, including Eñe, a quarterly literary journal in Spanish featuring exclusive stories and essays by acclaimed writers. Furthermore, OjodePez, centered on documentary photography, just reached its 40th issue, featuring the most socially committed photography.
La Fábrica has published 660 books by 500 authors in 20 countries, including 243 monographs devoted to photographers such as W. Eugene Smith, Margaret Bourke-White, Chema Madoz, Alberto García-Alix, Sebastião Salgado, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank and Edward Hopper, among many others, as well as 256 anthologies featuring various artists. Exquisite editions which join the publisher’s numerous collections: PHotoBolsillo (Pocket Editions), focusing on Spanish photographers and a benchmark of Spanish photography with 88 titles; Obras Maestras (Masterpieces), definitive volumes of the most acclaimed Spanish photographers; Palabra e Imagen (Word y Image), dialogues among images by prestigious photographers and texts by contemporary writers; BlowUp, texts featuring the essence of major artists; and Álbum, the most important work by the finest photographers.
PHotoEspaña and international exhibitions
In 1998, La Fábrica created PHotoEspaña. The International Festival of Photography and Visual Arts, winner of the Fine Arts Gold Medal of Merit in 2014, has organized more than 1,550 exhibitions featuring 5,000 artists from 100 countries, and has become one of the most important cultural events in the world. In 2015, PHE will celebrate its 18th edition, expanding its reach thanks to alliances with Spanish and international institutions and the Trasatlántica organization, which to date has promoted activities in Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, The United States, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, The Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela. And this year Argentina and Honduras have been added.
At the same time, La Fábrica created a department of exhibitions that hasorganized 150 travelling shows in more than 300 museums and culture centers throughout the world, including the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and Den Haag Fotomuseum, The Hague; MART Rovereto-Trento; the Museo Picasso, Málaga; the Preus Museum, Horten/Oslo; MAN de Nuoro, Sardinia; FOAM, Amsterdam; the Ludwig Museum, Budapest; and the Fundació Catalunya-La Pedrera, Barcelona, among others.
La Fábrica’s gallery has shown the work of many of the most important contemporary artists: Marina Abramovic, Richard Billingham, Antoni Muntadas, Nobuyoshi Araki, Diane Arbus, Paul Graham, Kimsooja and Shirin Neshat are just a few.
Festivals
La Fábrica has invested its experience in the organization of festivals and other culture activities. Unique events which have counted with the participation of more than 2,000 writers, including Salman Rushdie, Patti Smith, John Banville, Javier Marías, James Nachtwey, Fred Vargas, Ana María Matute, Michel Houllebecq, Petros Márkaris, Martin Parr and Oliviero Toscani.
The Festival Eñe is Spanish literature’s most important literary encounter. More than 500 authors have taken part in the event, held every autumn at both Madrid’s Círculo de Bellas Artes and a Latin American city. Montevideo, Lima and Buenos Aires have all hosted the festival, and this November a compact edition will take place at the Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos, which will travel to Panama in December.
Book Night, a project produced in conjunction with the Community of Madrid, is a major literary celebration which for the past eight years has commemorated World Book Day with more than 400 activities in one day.
The OjodePez Photo Meeting Barcelona takes place each year at La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, and invites major photographers to debate about documentary photography. In addition, after just seven editions, Getafe Negro, a festival dedicated to the detective novel and organized by the city of Getafe, has become a key event for the genre.
Cultural Center Design
La Fábrica develops comprehensive designs for centers dedicated to art and innovation, from the initial overall concept and definition of activities, to the business model and restoration architectural design of the space. La Fábrica has participated in the development of leading centers of contemporary cultural, such as the Casa Encendida, Matadero Madrid, La Térmica de Málaga, and La Cárcel, Segovia Centro de Creación.
Pioneer in Cultural Innovation on the Internet
La Fábrica has developed more than 60 innovative web-based projects totaling 14 million unique users and 115,000 social network followers. Notodo.com, the company’s first digital initiative, is a leader in the recommendation and orientation of cultural events on the web. Jamesonotodofilmfest.com, festival dedicated to short films, has pioneered the distribution of audiovisual content on the Internet. Javier Fesser, Rodrigo Cortés, Bigas Luna, Isaki Lacuesta and Daniel Monzón have all acted as directors of a festival that has supported the audiovisual arts for some 12 years, with more than 10,000 competing films attracting more than 43 million viewers. Notodohoteles.com, the first hotel recommendation website, with more than 600 establishments chosen for their quality, will re-launch this fall to offer users everything needed for an enjoyable trip. Added to these initiatives are innovative 2.0 contests such as Absolut Portfolios, Picglaze Photo Prize, Fundación Telefónica Documenta and Fotoactitud.
Practical Instruction in Cultural Management
As for education, La Fábrica offers its students its wide experience in cultural management form a practical perspective. The Director of Cultural Projects course will be taught for the third time, training the culture managers of the future. PIC.A, The Alcobendas PHotoEspaña International School offers photography classes for all levels, from amateur to professional, as well as Máster PHotoEspaña, with seven editions to its name. La Fábrica’s most important initiative in the field of education is the creation, in conjunction with the Circulo de Bellas Artes, of SUR, Escuela de Profesiones Artísticas, a program whose aim is to revolutionize the way the arts are taught through an intensive two-year curriculum featuring practical workshops with teachers like Georges Didi-Huberman, Cristina Iglesias, Chema Madoz, Félix de Azúa, Luis Goytisolo, Juan Mayorga, Gerardo Vera, Alberto García-Alix, Pedro Almodóvar and Antoni Muntadas.
Analysis of the Cultural Sphere
Another venture sponsored by La Fábrica is the Fundación Contemporánea, a forum for discussion and debate among professionals of the cultural sphere. Prominent among its activities is the Observatorio de la Cultura, a weekly opinion poll that surveys the sector; Pública, Encuentros Internacionales de Gestión Cultural, which every year for the past four years has featured more than 600 professionals; and 10×10 Pública, a program supporting cultural entrepreneurs.
A Meeting Point in art’s “Golden Mile”
In 2013, La Fábrica, whose offices are located in Madrid city center, inaugurated more a space covering more than 400 square meters dedicated to culture. Throughout the last year-and-a-half it’s become a true meeting point thanks to a weekly program of activities including Club Havana 7 Cultura Abierta, a bookstore specializing in photography, an artists’ shop, an art gallery and the gastronomic offerings of its café.
“La Fábricás Chosen 20” and commemorative events
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, La Fábrica wishes to acknowledge the artists and professionals who have served as inspiration for many of its projects. The photographers Ramón Masats, Alberto García-Alix and Chema Conesa; the collector Pilar Citoler; the designers Fernando Gutiérrez and Pablo Rubio; the movie directors Javier Fesser and Daniel Sánchez Arévalo; the vintner Telmo Rodríguez; and the art director Quico Vidal, are a few of La Fábrica’s “Chosen 20.” La Fábrica will publicly honor and express its gratitude in a series of exceptional encounters open to the public.
In the same fashion that these trend-setters have served as inspiration, La Fábrica will recognize a further 20 talents who will impact the future and who represent its continuing potential.
Upcoming Events
The new term has begun with new initiatives such as the organization of the three upcoming editions of Fête de livre de Var. The first international fair produced by La Fábrica, focused on Mediterranean literature, filled the city of Toulon with activities from September 26th to the 28th.
A Coruña is hosting the first edition of Agra de Orzán, with more than 30 cultural events, and in November it will host the second edition of Coruña Film.
La Fábrica’s most important initiative in the field of education for the new term is the creation, in conjunction with the Círculo de Bellas Artes, of SUR, Escuela de Profesiones Artísticas. Additionally, Máster PHotoEspaña, PIC.A’s photography classes and the Director of Cultural Projects course are all open for applications.
The editorial department is celebrating the tenth anniversary of the magazine Eñe, and will continue to develop its publishing activities with the release of such titles as París Magnum, En la carretera and Barcelona: Retrato de la ciudad, as well as promoting new writers and formats with the launch of a new collaborative series for its pocket photo books.
The Festival Eñe will fill the Círculo de Bellas Artes with readers and writers on November 21st and 22nd, and will celebrate the first of its compact editions at the Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos, also on November 22nd, and will produce the Festival Eñe America in Panama on December 4th, 5th and 6th. The seventh edition of Getafe Negro will take place on October 16-26, with authors such as Jo Nesbø, Mitsuyo Kakuta, Craig Russell and William MacIlvanney. In November, Trasatlántica PHotoEspaña will be celebrated in Rosario and Tegucigalpa.
The new season at La Fábrica’s gallery will feature shows by Marta Soul, Miguel Ángel Moreno Carretero, Iñaki Domingo and Roger Ballen, developing a policy of mixing emerging artists with major international photographers.
In the digital sphere, Notodohoteles.com will be completely redesigned. Based on it selection of hotels, it will provide travelers with more choices, offering an expansive view to its users in order to improve their travelling experience, and providing better service to hotels. Notodo.com will launch its first application focused on entertainment and urban culture, emphasizing the quality of its recommendations and offering exclusive daily itineraries of various Spanish cities. Jamesonotodofilmfest.com is opening its 13th edition to applications in November.
2015 will begin with Pública 15, the International Cultural Management Symposigather together culture professionals at the Círculo de Bellas Artes on January 29th and 30th, and will continue with the organization of a program of exhibitions and photography events at the SESC in São Paolo, Brazil. In addition, PHotoEspaña 2015, dedicated to Latin American photography, will open on June 5th.
Finally, in March, La Fábrica will hold the 1st Congress for Business and Culture, which will gather together some hundred companies to analyze the opportunities for private-sector investment in the arts.
