From March 4th until April 3rd, Arte en Papel 2011, the First International Festival of Graphic Arts will take over the city of Cuenca, filling its art galleries and public spaces with a range of exhibitions and activities related to graphic production, art and design.

With a selection of well-known figures from the graphic arts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as well as new artists just beginning to shine, the exhibitions present a broad spectrum of graphic styles and modes of expression, ranging from traditional analogue printmaking (engraving, screen-printing, etching…) to digital graphics, animation and contemporary approaches to drawing.

Arte en Papel 2011, will also host the Contornos Prize, awarded to the best work of graphic art created in any technique, regardless of whether this is a traditional printmaking method or the product of one of the new techniques made available by advanced technology.

The festival also includes a variety of parallel activities such as drawing and screen-printing workshops, aimed at Cuenca’s student population, and a programme of lectures on graphic production, publishing, art and design. These will be divided between two venues in Cuenca: the Faculty of Fine Arts and the José María Cruz Novillo School of Art.

To complete the Arte en Papel 2011 programme, ProBeta, Urban Laboratory, will transform the streets of Cuenca into a space for experiment and creativity involving the city and its inhabitants. In this edition of the festival, all those involved in the student directed, university magazine DO2 (artists, designers, photographers…) accompanied by students from art schools in the region will implement a series of performances, interventions and actions each Saturday at sites located all over the city.