The 1995 edition of Printemps de Cahors brings three innovations compared to previous years. First of all, the presence of a theme which federates part of the exhibitions, but also night projections ; the appearance of a video programme, in the form of an exhibition and interventions in several places in the city ; finally, the commissioning of a large installation from an artist. These three innovations are linked by a common concern, that of paying tribute, in our own way, to the cinema, which is being celebrated this year, according to the established formula, "the first century". Indeed, we know the close links between cinema and photography, and especially the contemporary forms of photographic creation. It was therefore important for us to take this opportunity to examine them in greater detail, far from any agreed and easy celebration.

In the programme of exhibitions, there is indeed an explicit reference to cinema ("an imaginary cinema..."). But this is to evoke the indirect influences and affinities that are woven between the imaginary and the cinematographic technique and certain contemporary artists. Otherwise, it will be a question of artists who sometimes use film projection (Wyn Geleynse), or refer to it in their iconography (Joachim Schmid); or of filmmaker-photographers, such as Johan van der Keuken, who explore an intermediate time and space. Unless it is the form of image that increasingly supplants cinema (or through which cinema continues to exist, depending on one's point of view), i.e. television (indirectly referred to by Paul Graham); or, in its artistic version, video.

The programme of exhibitions is not limited to this theme (which, moreover, is more of a pretext than anything else, to show types of work that we like). There are also, as in other years, monographs by artists from various countries : Valérie Belin and Sophie Calle for France ; Salvatore Puglia for Italy ; Knut Maron and Joachim Schmid for Germany ; Paul Graham for Great Britain ; Denis Farley and Wyn Geleynse for Canada. Most of them will be exhibiting unpublished or recent work, when it is not their first solo exhibition in France (Wyn Geleynse, Joachim Schmid). 

An important aspect of this year's exhibition program is the emphasis on collections, both public and private. Two years ago, we had already explored part of a private collection (that of Bernard Lamarche-Vadel). We are renewing the experience with Madeleine Millot-Durrenberger's collection, which presents a very different aspect of the photographic experience. Two exhibitions are devoted to public collections : those of the Fonds national d'art contemporain for "an imaginary cinema..." already mentioned ; and that of the Polaroid collection of the Maison européenne de la photographie. Indeed, we believe very much in the importance of these periodic explorations carried out outside of collections that cannot be apprehended as a whole, and that only come to life through such journeys through them.

This year, Stéphane Moidson has been entrusted with the experimental implementation of a video programme. It will feature a series of indoor and outdoor programs and installations, mostly by artists who are now recognized in the field and who testify to the artistic maturity that this medium has reached. It will no doubt be increasingly necessary to associate it (as well as the installation) with photographic programming, because today's image forms are constantly interpenetrating, crossing, mixing and responding to each other, to the point where the distinction between the different media loses much of its meaning. It is, moreover, the artists themselves who incite us to do so, through their multiple practices, and sometimes even their relative indifference to the tool used.
From this point of view, Yann Kersalé's installation is very characteristic. Y. Kersalé does not produce images, his material is light, that is to say, what transports images and energy and makes them possible. The fact that he chose to "convene" into the Cloister, a place of meditation and contemplation, all the television programmes likely to reach this place by satellite, while scrambling reception and reducing it to a luminous tone, says a lot about the complex place that television occupies in the collective imagination. Supposedly a place of the present, in its most direct development, it appears in fact as a glow and a phantasmagorical machine, site of the greatest unreality.

The screenings will also be closely linked to the cinema. First of all, by their image content, since we will see filming photos, photograms, portraits, etc., and then by their content. But also by their specific work on lighting and framing specific to cinema. Because cinema is a set of sensations, rituals, ways of making light or shade, a whole "device" at once material, sensory and mental. And not only stories and stars...

Like last year, we invite an art gallery and a publisher to be among us, because we believe that both are essential actors of the art scene. The Yvonamor Palix Art Space will present some of the artists that this young gallery defends, in a spirit quite close to that which animates Le Printemps de Cahors. As for the publisher, we have asked Éditions Marval to come back this year to present the entire group of European publishers with which this company is associated. There are six publishers whose works will be presented (Dewi Lewis Publishing, Great Britain ; Éditions Gunter Braus, Germany ; Fragment Uitgeri, Holland ; Lunwerg Editores, Spain ; Marval, France ; Peliti Associati, Italy). There will also be a very wide choice of books and catalogues devoted to the artists featured in this year's event, offering spectators the opportunity to obtain comprehensive information.

Finally, we are continuing our programme of videos and films by photographers, with the ambition of eventually offering an actual panorama (including in its historical dimension) of this aspect of the work of many artists.

As you can see, this is a dense programme, but one that nevertheless aims to remain on the scale of the city and above all on that of the spectator's reception capacities. A programme that innovates on several levels, while remaining in the spirit of previous years.

Régis Durand
Artistic Director and Curator of Exhibitions