Real Madrid has confirmed that 'The 21st Century Bernabéu: José Manuel Ballester', an exhibition staged in partnership with PHotoESPAÑA, will accompany the club on its Tour, bringing the photographer's study of the rebuilt stadium to audiences beyond Madrid.

The announcement, made through the club's official website, positions Ballester's work as the visual record of the most consequential architectural transformation in the club's recent history: the remodelling of the Santiago Bernabéu into what the institution now calls the stadium of the 21st century.

Who is José Manuel Ballester?

Ballester is a Spanish photographer and painter, a Madrid-based artist whose practice has long concentrated on architecture and space. His appointment for this commission aligns with PHotoESPAÑA's record of pairing established Spanish photographers with institutional subjects, and it gives the stadium's reconstruction an authorial eye rather than a purely documentary one.

What does the exhibition contain?

According to the club's announcement, the show presents Ballester's photographic interpretation of the transformed Bernabéu. The club frames the exhibition as part of the Tour programme, meaning the work travels with the team's pre-season activities rather than sitting in a single gallery — an unusually mobile presentation for a PHotoESPAÑA project.

The exhibition's full itinerary and dates have not been detailed in the announcement, though its attachment to the Tour signals Real Madrid's intent to present the stadium's reinvention to an international audience.

Why pair a stadium with a photography festival?

The collaboration places the Bernabéu rebuild within a cultural frame. PHotoESPAÑA, Madrid's international photography festival, has previously brought architectural photography into public debate, and the club's decision to document its reconstruction through a named artist — rather than press imagery alone — treats the building as a subject worthy of sustained photographic examination.

For Ballester, the commission continues a career spent interrogating how built structures hold meaning: here, the subject is a stadium whose new roof, facade and technology have made it one of the most discussed architectural projects in European sport.

Where can audiences see it?

The exhibition follows the Real Madrid Tour. The club has not yet published a complete schedule of venues, but the announcement confirms the show will appear alongside Tour events, extending the reach of Ballester's stadium portraits well beyond the festival's Madrid base.

As the Tour progresses, further stops and dates for 'The 21st Century Bernabéu' are expected to be confirmed.