Altibajos / Ups and downs

The video offer was more numerous in this edition. Les Abattoirs projected the attractive Guards (2004) and the work Shoeshine (2004), both by Francis Alÿs, as well as the mysterious 1st Part Conditional (2004), by Markus Schinwald (exhibited alongside half a dozen photographic images signed by the artist); the overrated Be The First To See What You See As You See It (2004), by Runa Islam, and A morir (2000), by Miguel Ángel Ríos -a close-up of several fast spins. Of all the video works on show, the most notable works were created by Julian Rosefeld, accurately on show in a hall at the Hôtel Dieu Saint-Jacques, and by Margaret Salmon -projected in the basement of the Fondation Espace Écureuil. Rosefeld's magnificent piece Asylum (2001-2002) is a large projection of images filmed in 16 mm and transferred to dvd and screened on nine channels in perfect synchronisation. Each screen shows a marginal or exotic group performing a strange activity: oriental prostitutes on a carrousel, Eastern European servants sweeping a garden of succulents, Japanese chefs in a red-tiled room invaded by branches, black men in a dark hall making Hawaiian dolls dance, etc. As regards the four videos Salmon presented, the most notable is Peggy (2003), a pathetic portrait that depicts old lady in her desolate domestic world.

The Hôtel Dieu was also the setting for Gert Verhoeven's installation Fountain (Rose) , a reddish water fountain surrounded by lights and towels that had been dyed red, in the severe framework of the chapel of the building; and the pieces from the series Places (2006) by Jan Vercruysse, sheets of rusty corten steel and black galvanised steel with symbols from the French card deck alternated in a "disoriented" fashion. The Château d'Eau was occupied by Olivier Blanckart and his characteristic figures that resemble papier mâché . Several pieces from the series Algérie, les Femmes Déviolées (d'après M. Garanger) , from 2004 -inspired by Marc Garanger's portraits of Algerian women from 1960, commissioned by the French armada-, were positioned on the ground floor, whilst the basement accommodated the installation Le Grand Afflictif (D'après une photo de Laurent Quadrini) , from 2004, that stems from the photographic record of a sort of demonstration carried out by the relatives of the Flactif family, who disappeared mysteriously from their luxurious Alpine chalet, when it was discovered that they had been murdered by a jealous neighbour. Blanckart uses images that, due to their inclusion in newspapers and their documentary nature, usually seem prosaic and repetitive, and transforms them into icons, hieratic figures loaded with a ritualistic aura.

Less interesting projects were presented by Laurent Montaront, Lonnie van Brummelen and Jules Spinatsch at the Espace Croix-Baragnon; John Bock at Espace edf Bazacle -which included the exasperating film Dandy (2006) and several elongated hanging pieces-, Cathy de Monchaux at the Maison Éclusière, and Peter Kogler -his intervention on the arch of the Pont Neuf attempted to create the illusion of a modern structure made of metal tubes placed on top of the bridge's original brick construction; or his nocturnal intervention on another spot of the river Garona, that consisted of the projection of a parade of large rats-. However insignificant some of these pieces, and several of the works on show at Les Abattoirs, may seem, none is as deficient as the dreadful Non Verbal (2006) -two mannequins, an lcd screen that did not work, a pushchair and other elements-, by Cathy Wilkes, whose inanity was highlighted by being on display precisely in the venue that presented the best pieces in the whole of the Festival: the afo reme ntioned videos by Margaret Salmon, projected at the Espace Écureuil.

In all, with ups and downs, and without clear connections between the curatorial discourse and the projects on show, Printemps de Septembre maintains the attraction of an exhibition that is not too long or pretentious, and which is, intelligently, based greatly on the beauty of the actual city of Toulouse.