27/9/2001
Printemps de Septembre
Different venues, Toulouse
Film and VideoContemporary image based work treads a fine line between the real and the imagined . Taking the real world as its subject matter, it weaves narratives which may or may not enter into the state of fiction. The theme of the first printemps de septembre looks at the ways in which artists have made their works into theatres of experience, records of personal journeys, investigations into the eerie corners of the human condition.
Film and VideoContemporary image based
work treads a fine line between the real and
the imagined . Taking the real world as its
subject matter, it weaves narratives which
may or may not enter into the state of fiction.
The theme of the first printemps de septembre
looks at the ways in which artists have made
their works into theatres of experience,
records of personal journeys, investigations
into the eerie corners of the human condition.
From an imagined lighthouse in an imagined
and idyllic place to the strange alliance
between subject and photographer (actor and
director?) in the deprived rural hinterland of
South Africa, from the desperate attempts of a
man to stay upright on the ice, hampered by
the artist's devices to the equally desperate
attempts of a group of friend to sneeze to order,
this is the absurdist comedy of the Millennium.
When we look at the camera, the camera
unfailingly looks back at us, and we may think of
ourselves as its subjects or its victims. In
Theatres of Anxiety, the status of victim or the
ruthlessly observed is challenged, and we no
longer know who is performing for who. A
photographer makes photographs which appear
to be staged, but are merely acutely recorded
moments in everyday life, while another
constructs landscapes which have their basis in
the real but which confound our perceptions of
that reality.
Strangers are asked to sing a lullaby to another
stranger and the moment of reserve passes as
memories prompt a stronger voice and a belief
in the validity of personal history. Artists weave
narratives, make explanations about their (and
so our) relation to the troubling and fragmented
world in which we live and so the comedy of the
absurd' laced with tragedy and regret,
continues. The Printemps de Septembre is a
new festival, but of course its roots are in the
emergence and growth of the radical and
energetic Printemps de Cahors, which
celebrated its tenth birthday in 200O. Theatres
of Anxiety celebrates its rebirth with the
exposure of new artists and the presentation of
those already distinguished. It celebrates in
particular the new energy and questioning
emerging from the Nordic Countries, so long
partially hidden from our view, now producing
some of the most questioning and incisive work
in Europe.
Val Williams
Mécènes et Partenaires :
Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain
Champagne Demoiselle - Groupe Vranken
Commissariat des Expositions: Val Williams
Programmation Vidéo: Stéphanie Moisdon
Artists:
Ruyta Amae / Sophie Ansar / Shimon Attie / Roger Ballen / Helena Bergman /
Cecilia Bergman Fröberg / Katharina Bosse / Elina Brotherus / Pierre Faure /
Carole Fékété / Anna Fox / Dan Fröberg / Rakel & Klara Fröberg / Anna Gaskell /
Ulf Lundin / David Lynch / Didier Massard / Paul Mc Carthy / Bjargey
Ólafsdóttir / Anneè Olofsson / Mario Rizzi / Lars Siltberg / Albrecht Tübke/
Dara Birnbaum / Olaf Breuning / Fischerspooner / Sylvie Fleury / Marc Leckey /
Rachel Feinstein / Ugo Rondinone / Mickael Smith / Paul Smith / Marnie Weber /
Media City
image: Printemps de Septembre 2001
Mario Rizzi, Hamahakki, 1999
Projection vidéo C Mario Rizzi