Kalumet features four hermetic poems by Ungaretti and his ‘Prayer’ along with the five geographical maps: Oceania/Australia, Europe, North America, Africa, and the Atlantic. The maps appear through thousands of tiny shapes of aircrafts, printed with white ink (letterpress) on black Atsusumipittura (heat-ink-painted) papers, captured online from flightradar24. Flight information is given to create the positions of the aircrafts: each map shows one particular moment of a day, showing all civil aircrafts in flight that moment. Each section opens with a flora image on very light Nepal paper and two numbers: a.) the number of aircafts in flight, and b.) the number of languages spoken in that area of the earth. The number of languages spoken appears inversely proportional to the numbers of aicrafts.

The more we fly the more our languages disappear. Where the money moves the variety of all cultural goods are fading: taste of food, fashion, daily life, thinking and even philosophy adapts to one kind, with access for everybody. The floral images of nature on thin Nepal Paper give space for our mind to remember the beauty of our planet. So do Ungaretti’s poems for the culture of men.

Flexible binding by Thomas Zwang, Hamburg with leather spine, embossed. Three different types of handmade Japanese Papers use, Kaga Chiri Iri Ganpishi for the text and title, Nepal paper for the floral images, and Kozo for the Sumi-ink images.