GETXOPHOTO

GETXOPHOTO is a image festival created and managed by Begihandi that has been taking place in Getxo –Basque Country, Euskadi– for 14 years. A festival that is part of a cultural ecosystem with the aim of being more participatory, hybrid, committed and sustainable. This thematic Festival is conceived as a platform that addresses contemporary challenges through different proposals from visual storytellers from around the world, in an attempt to create spaces for reflection and establish a collective conversation. GETXOPHOTO is characterized by the radical defense of public space (both physical and online) as a meeting place of mutual recognition and as a field of experimentation, play and celebration instead of its homogenization and privatization. For this reason, most of its programme is made up of outdoor installations. As a result, there is a focus on the relationship between the image and the environment and on the horizontal and participatory connection with the public. One of the goals of GETXOPHOTO is the creation of a critical community around the image (composed of artists and audiences) that contributes to strengthening the social fabric. Although this Festival is settled down in the local and regional context, its international perspective is based on a culture of proximity in which the citizens are protagonists. It promotes the active involvement of the community and the social return through its local links (merchants, hoteliers, artists or fans). From its transversal approach, GETXOPHOTO has been expanding itself by embrazing Internet as a space to develop visual culture. It carries out a specific online program that includes different approaches: augmented reality, podcasts, apps, memes, 3D models or live broadcasts, among other digital proposals. The idea of minimizing its environmental impact and becoming an increasingly sustainable initiative guides the Festival’s production and design policy.