This upcoming year, Philadelphia will be hosting the first Philagrafika 2010 event, which will be taking place from January 29-April 11, 2010. The festival will be celebrating the significance of the role of print in contemporary art. This is set to be one of the largest art events in the U.S. It will showcase the work of over 300 artists and will unite 88 Philadelphia art institutions. This will become a recurring event, which will repeat every three years. The event will give regional, national and international audiences the opportunity to experience Philadelphia¿s culture, first hand. Jose Roca, Artistic Director of the festival, is internationally known as co-curator for the 2006 Sao Paulo Biennial and the San Juan Triennial, Puerto Rico. Roca and his team have worked on Philagrafika 2010 for more than five years. This has been a citywide collective effort, which will result in a great way to experience modern printmaking in a region which is historic for it. Philagrafika 2010 will consist of three parts: The Graphic Unconscious, Out of Print, and Independent Projects. The Graphic Unconscious, a core curated exhibition, will include 35 artists from 18 countries displayed across 5 venues. This exhibition explores the universal existence of printed matter in our visual culture. It will expose the print component in sculptural, environmental, performance, and pictorial and video works. Out of Print will pair 5 artists with 5 historic institutions; American Philosophical Society Museum, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Independence Seaport Museum, Rosenbach Museum &Library, and University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Out of Print will showcase the region¿s long history as a central place for printmaking and publishing. The final exhibition, Independent Projects will be organized by 78 additional Philadelphia cultural institutions. Independent Projects will consist of an extensive amount of exhibitions, performances, and site-specific installations in which the printed image will play the main role. For further information, visit
www.philagrafika2010.org