48 pages, 17x24cm, soft cover

ISBN 978-2-9509059-0-1

Editions La Maison du Cerf-Volant, Paris

 

 Cerfs-Volants
Un Ciel,  un Monde
book, written by Gerard Clement, in French, edited 2009
 
This not pretending opuscule is not first meant for kiters having already a well-appointed library. and though, in a modern page arrangement, it includes a lot of interesting pictures that would take hours to glean on the web.
In fact, by small touches of 2 to 3 pages, it is an exiting world tour which is proposing Gerard Clement. It is not a common summary of kite in each called up countries one by one. It is an elaborated text and well hanged together which immersed us in the field of kite particular to each country "in echo with the society and the culture of each country in which it moves in". These few words of the author are revealing what the author has the will to render. It is what really appealed to me in this book and which is a success. This link, this echo, this reflection of a society and a culture is probably true in each artistic expression. However, kite is different by its short-lived aspect, popular, spontaneous and though with deep and permanent roots. This aspect of kite is certainly its utmost value and which Gerard has brilliantly exposed. Many more ambitious works have never been able to make us feel this.
After the small tour on the planet, there are then the evolutions during the two last centuries which are covered by themes.
Finally what one could take as a nice documentary for children is more than that. It will of course fulfill the youthful imagination but also satisfy the curiosity and the need of discovery of the adult with much documentation and descriptions absolutely not common, but rich and enthralling.