Change is a part of the life of everything, and Printemps de septembre is no exception. Like the contemporary art wich constitutes its raison d'être, it continues to transform and to evolve. 

In his second spell as artistic director of Printemps de septembre in Toulouse, Jean-Marc Bustamante, with his associate curators Jean-Pierre Criqui and Pascal Pique, has put together a selection of erxhibitions untitled "VERTIGES" (vertigos). This is the second panel of a triptych, the first of witch, "In Extremis", was marked by a concern to engage with radically diverse forms, mediums, and types of experience, displacing and enriching the very notion of the image. Encouraged by the unprecedented public and critical reception of Printemps de septembre 2004, the exhibitions comprising "VERTIGES" in 2005 chart in further detail the contemporary artistic landscape. 

Featuring more prominently this year are the mediums of painting and drawing, a result of the conviction that these continue to pose fundamental questions. But no less important is the presence of all the other means which are put to use by today's artists in order to renew our relationships with our world and our history: photography, the moving image in all of its forms, installation, and sculpture. It is the message of a work, its vigour, its reach, and not the means by which its speaks to use which is of the greatest importance.                                                              

From a global perspective, Printemps de septembre remains a unique meeting between the visual arts - in the form of a succession of original an compelling exhibitions - and live performance of every sort: theatre, dance, performance art, music, cineconcerts, and more. Live performance, exemplified by the Nomadic Nights run by Isabelle Gaudefroy, plays a major part in the staging of a programme of events which, at the same time as inviting us to reinterpret Toulouse's public spaces as they are thrown into relief by the street lightening during the Nicturnes (evening events), cut across the myriad scenes of everyday life and affirm a culture that is represented in all its variety.

The festival remains, as ever, free to all. This is our mainspring: we seek to open the sphere of contemporary art to as large and diverse a public as possible. The ability to do so is in large part owed to the institutions and patrons who have enabled us to keep the festival free. We thank them. 

Once again Toulouse has made its physical and cultural geography available for the staging of these events. It is an alliance which cannot fail to be arresting, uniting an unrivalled city and a Printemps de septembre 2005 which aspires, in keeping with the vertiginous theme, to turn heads. 

Marie-Thérèse Perrin

Président