Printemps de Septembre 2006

With the tremendous growth in the numbers of galleries and museums and boom in biennials and festivals, and with the support of the market, the last ten years have witnessed a spectacular development in the resources, mediums and modes of production used by artists. While the conceptual horizon had been open for decades, it would seem that the astonishing diversity of forms and formats is a more recent development, one that very much characterises today's art.

In five years, and through 250 artist's projects presented in Toulouse, the Printemps de septembre, in its ongoing efforts to remain abreast of the newest issues arising from today's art, has of course adapted to these developments. Historically grounded in photography, and with a solid ten years of experience in Cahors, the festival has been able to exploit its thoroughgoing knowledge of the image to become the great crossroads of the visual arts and the performing arts, a place where rising young artists meet historic figures. Now open to all forms of art-making, every year the Printemps de septembre is like a blank page that is presented to the curators, whose role can be simply summarised thus: the freedom to create an original and coherent proposition.

This is Jean-Marc Bustamante's third and final year as artistic director of the festival. He has guided its development with real conviction, bringing out all the richness of today's art in “In extremis” and “VERTIGES”, the first two in the triptych of festivals under his directorship. Today, with his exhibition curators Pascal Pique and Mirjam Varadinis, and with Isabelle Gaudefroy programming the performing arts, he is continuing with this fresh approach and inviting us to discover “Lignes Brisées / Broken Lines”, a project articulated around the notions of order and disorder, with results that are both harmonious and dissonant, a bit like today's art scene.

Although conceived and planned as a long-term project, the Printemps de septembre functions rather like a laboratory: every year, it aims to bring out a new proposition, a prototype. This flexibility is possible precisely because of the stability and development of the festival structure. The Printemps' growing team now has offices in Paris and Toulouse, and behind them is a set of individuals, public institutions, patrons and partners whose support is of course the essential condition of the festival's existence. Also worthy of mention here is the importance of the varied sites that form the fabric of the exhibition sequence and give it both variety and unity. These may sometimes come as a bit of surprise to artists used to the white cube of the museum, but they are also a challenge and a source of magic. Finally, the Printemps de septembre now enjoys a strong image with the public, the media and in the international world of contemporary art.

This brief summary of the festival's “intangible assets” gives an idea of its heritage, of the expertise it has acquired over the years, and from which the “broken lines” of this year's programme were drawn.

Marie-Thérèse Perrin President of the Association du Printemps de septembre and director of the festival

Printemps de Septembre 2006
"Lignes brisées / Broken Lines"
Festivaldirektor: Marie-Therese Perrin
Künstlerischer Direktor: Jean-Marc Bustamante
Kuratoren: Mirjam Varadinis, Pascal Pique

mit Francis Alÿs, Art & Language, Olivier Blanckart, John Bock, Monica Bonvicini, Lonnie van Brummelen (Lonnie van Brummelen & Siebren de Haan), Christoph Büchel, Mircea Cantor, Rodney Graham, Alex Hanimann, Runa Islam, Anish Kapoor, Peter Kogler, Erik van Lieshout, Sarah Lucas, Cathy De Monchaux, Laurent Montaron, Miguel Angel Rios, Clement Rodzielski, Julian Rosefeldt, Margaret Salmon, Joe Scanlan, Markus Schinwald, Dana Schutz, Nedko Solakov, Jules Spinatsch, Tatiana Trouve, Jan Vercruysse, Gert Verhoeven, Lawrence Weiner, Cathy Wilkes, Markus Schinwald, Dana Schutz, Andro Wekua ...