No.3 Fabre n’est pas venu

Fabre n’est pas venu, 2006


Conseil Municipal de la Mairie
de Toulouse

Panorama composed of 3960 single images,
recorded with computer-controlled network camera
from 11:33 to 18:01, June 30, 2006



Fabre n’est pas venu shows a meeting of the Toulouse City Counsel, in which 256 items were discussed. The computer-controllednetwork camera was placed slightly off the central axis of the room, a little bit closer to the mayor than to the visitors. Due to the length of the meeting, the rotating webcam covered 400 degrees. Consequently, the left-wing opposition was doubled, yet still remained a minority. The titles refers to the potentially confidential note of a city councilor that reads “Fabre did not come.” Monsieur Fabre is the head of a major pharmaceutical company in the south-west of France. The reference point of Fabre n’est pas venu is Jean-Louis David’s monumental painting from 1807 of Napoleon Bonaparte’s consecration as French emperor in the Musée du Louvre. Both works are representations of political power, one commissioned by the French emperor, the other by the City of Toulouse (i. e. the festival Le Printemps du Septembre). Whereas David’s painting asserts complete control of Napoleon’s image as befits an emperor, Spinatsch in a democratic fashion cedes the control to the automatic camera.

There are five versions of Fabre ne’est pas venu. Version 1 is a site-specific panorama installation. Version 2 is a framed inkjet print with the title and the seating order of the city council printed on the white border. Version 3, Oben und Unten (Above and below), is a series of randomly paired images, each pair printed on a separate sheet. One image in each pair was taken from the top half of the room, the other from the lowerhalf. Version 4, Sous la Table – Fabre is a series of framed inkjet prints that show details recorded below the table of the City Council. Version 5 will be a book with images from the series Sous la Table – Fabre.