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DIEPPE CAPITALE DU CERF-VOLANT
International Dieppe Kite Festival
The World of Kite
History of Kite - Traditional Kite - Artistic - Fighting Kite
Sporting Kite - Indoor Kite- Kite Surf - Traction Kite
History of Kite
The first appearance of a kite was first of all situated 2000 years ago in China. But another hypothesis, quite probable, locates its birth in the current Indonesia territory, 3500 years ago. Navigators accustomed to observe winds, the inhabitants of of this string islands would have been the first ones to make kites fly. Then this tool would have spread towards Pacific and Continental Asia.
The kite made its appearance only late in West. Tartares used it on the battlefield in 1241 to frighten their enemies; mid-banner, mid-kite, the tool spat flames and smoke which frightened the Polish soldiers.
Later, in XVth, XVIth and XVIIth centuries, one finds kites which have the shapes of rectangles and rhombuses and are used as games for children. They are also used for fireworks: it can be a dragon-shaped kite filled with gunpowder or a rhombus with a firecracker tail.
The XVIIIth century marks the beginning of a new era: at instigation of numerous researchers, the kite is transformed into a flying machine and an instrument of scientific research, the most famous example being Benjamin Franklin who, during a storm, thanks to a kite made of silk handkerchieves, demonstrated the existence and the effects of electric currents.
If during all this period, lots of people looked actively for new uses of the kite, we'll have to wait for the following century to see new models appearing. The scientists are then the most fervent adherents of the kites; some of them want to see which altitude could be reached , which weight it could lift, the others use it to study more particularly the possibilities of a flight in the open air, already thinking of the aeroplane. The searches for these last ones will settle the first basis of the aeronautical research.
The researchers looked into the conceptions of the kite, trying to create new models: boxes, tetrahedrons, flexifoil, parafoil, etc. But if with the appearance of the plane, the kite lost its utility as an experiment element (although it is still useful for the aerial photography), we assist to its revival as a sport or a leisure. The old human dream of flying being now realized, the kite became as initially, a game that takes advantage of all possible technologies.
Traditional Kite
Brazil
In Brazil, the practice of kite is a very popular play in particular in the underprivileged districts because it does not require large means and gets much recreation. Because of little place in the favelas, it replaces sometimes the football which is however the national play.
Here, the kites are also used as means of communication. According to the colors used and numbers of kites in the sky, the messages vary. They can, for example, prevent of a police raid.
In the country of football, the kites often carry the emblems of the local teams, but generally the designs are very coloured and geometrical. Certain designs are made with sized papers and others are printed on machines offset. The tail is very important, it is made with cotton yarn on which are fixed on regular intervals paper bands. Its length is also very important, it measures from 5 to 7 m length. In the area of Rio, approximately 40 million these kites are sold each year.
Extracted the book "traditional fighting Kites throughout the world", by Karine Boitrelle and Ludovic Petit
Cambodia
In Cambodia, ceremony of the klèng (kite, inCambodia) was practised until the death of king Ang-Duong in1859. At the time of full moon of November, the priests were invited to take their meal with the palate and, at the fallen night, the king and his mandarins launched the kites to the celestial spirits.
The season of the takes-off of the large kites is in November when rice harvests are finished. The villagers build the kites in group and especially make them fly during the night to listen to the song of the sound arcs, named "èk". These arcs of bamboos carry a long plate of cane or sheet of palm tree which, behaviour by a wire at each end, can swivel on itself and produces a soft random melody.
At the time of the old civilization Khmer, of IXe in XIIe century, the kite was, as often in Asia, used with a religious view. During royal ceremonies, behaviours by the priests bhramanes, the Khmers made fly the kites provided with sound arcs and, of their flight, the bonzes forecast dryness or rains for the year to come. A rite taken again besides by the invaders Thai at the time of the first kingdom of Sukhothai.
China
The chineese kite origin goes back to the antiquity. It is known that it was probably existing before the Qin dynasty there is 2000 years ago. Many texts can attest of its ancient history.
We can find in China the necessary materials for their fabrication: bamboo for its flange, and skill for the tail.
The Chinese folklore is rich in legends in which we find the kite associated to various aims, as military. Issued of the popular tradition, it is considered as a work of art depending of the national culture.
The history: the religion hold a place in the kite evolution, which in all of the provinces of China, deal a real role in the quotidian life. It results a varied production, of a prodigious subtlety & richness, in which the dragons with their majestic flight are sure the incontestable feather.
Korea
The kite is one of the most popular plays in Korea. It can be seen in the cities and the campaigns during the first moon of the lunar calendar. The children like the adults can start to fly as soon as they make their visit of new year with ainés, friends and neighbors, and this until half of the month.
At the end of this period, it is habit to register ideograms meaning "to drive out misfortune to welcome happiness" on a kite, then to launch it while making unroll all the wire until letting it escape so that it carries with him all misfortunes of the year. For this reason you never should recover a kite fallen on the ground from fear of being contaminated by the misfortune which it is carrying.
In Korea, some competitions are organized to devote the champions, but the majority of the fights are friendly. The majority of the kites are built by the pilots for their own needs. They can be very decorated and have required much time with manufacture, although they are dedicated to being lost. The kites also have the capacity to protect the dwelling against the bad spirits. The kites bought for decoration differ by their rdesign and their capacities from flight.
Extracted the book "traditional fighting Kites throughout the world", by Karine Boitrelle and Ludovic Petit.
Cuba
Tiny the papalotes cuban dances in the sky, their long tails with fringes undulate like snakes. Poisonous snakes could one say, because at their end, one attaches a razor blade to slice the wire of his adversaries.
A rank above the bellicose figthing kite that are the papalotes, the colonel is, similar by the form, but a size more respectable because it can reach two meters.
It carries in more of the paper fringes acting as vibrators. Naturally, the combat of these dangerous kites provided with one or more razorblades are now prohibited, in particular downtown. But during the windy season of April and May, one sees them to rise above parks and the hills or since the roof the houses.
As for all the combatants, the aerofoils of the papalote are decorated with simple geometrical design, with the contrasted colors, so that each one can identify his kite.
Guatemala
In Guatemala, on the All Saint's Day, the kite appears as one of the mediums for the population to communicate with their dead. The most cited village is the one of Santiago Sacatepequez.
We can see on some of the pictures the cemetery transformed in a true anthill in which bustle around, between their burials, some men which seem Lilliputians near from their big kites alike to multicolour big suns.
The legend tells that the dead's mind still clung to the earth could on this day, seize on the line kite and begin their trip towards the heaven.
According to Rafael Coyote, representative of the Guatemalan delegation in Dieppe, the Maya calendar reveals the existence of a specific day dedicated to the celebration of the dead people during which people fly kites.
These last ones were not probably as imposing as the actual ones. The apparition of the models of a big size in the Santiago Sacatepequez cemetery will not date more than hundred years ago, according to Rafael Coyote again.
This custom, without disavowing its first meaning, tends since fifteen years ago to use new shapes in a determined objective: using kite as a privileged support of expression, but also for the Indian heir people claims' of the Maya civilisation in its struggle to preserve its identity.
Indonesia
The fief of the fighting kite in Indonesia is the island of Java, and more particularly Bandung, city located at 3 hours by train of Jakarta . It is in this city which the great champions live. But one can also find very good fighters in Bogor and Sukabumi, city in the mountains which is specialized in the manufacture of Gelasan.
The best indonesian abrasive string comes from Sukabumi. We can also find fighting kites in the islands of Célèbes and Sumatra . It should be known that in Indonesia the fighting kites is not authorized, it is tolerated. This is why, the pilots who meet on grounds, hide at all the place where they are.
The sites of flight are kept secret. There are also competitions of very large fighting kites, 1 meter in height, that we can see in Monas, in Jakarta. They use a large cutting string and cross only while giving wire.
Extracted from the book "traditional fighting Kites throughout the world", by Karine Boitrelle and Ludovic Petit
Japan
While travelling randomly, a tourist could cross the country of the Sun Raising without seeing only one kite.
However, at the same time as it opens with the modern sporting kites, Japan is the guard of an old tradition,without any doubt the most richest and strongest all over the world : we can count more than two hundred kinds of kites, manufactured and decorated in the same way that at the last centuries.
There are a hundred and fifty years the kites were with the apogee of their popularity. Everywhere they occupied the sky, in the countryside as downtown, where the merchants made them fly since their step of door.
Japan changed, but Japanese is attached to preserve a number of their old custom.
In spite of industrialization with excess, the traditional kites are always well there, even if we don't see them any more but at the time of great annual celebrations.
Each model is specifically associated a precise area, even at only one city: the kite represents it, fact part of the soil, inheritance of the city. Such the O-dako which we accomodated in Dieppe in 1998 who is specific to Yôkaichi.
Formerly in Japan, we counted thousands, craftsmen specialized in the manufacture of the kites. Nowadays, there does not remain about it more than one around fifty.
But, more and more of local associations ensure the safeguarding of their regional models. Always impassioned and sometimes as talented as the best professionals, the amateur kitefliers took over.
The tradition of the Japanese kites is not ready to disappear.
Thailand
It is in Thailand that the play of fighting kites evolved to its noblest form and the most sophisticated. The kings themselves practised and encouraged it . In the heart of Bangkok, on the lawns of Sanam Luang, in front of the sparkling roofs of the Large Palate, the competitions are always held which oppose male kites against kites females: Chula against Pakpao.
Elegant and clean like animals of race, chula and pakpao have perfectly proportioned forms which result from several centuries of improvement. Since the origin of the sport, each type of kite was in a way, sexed, according to its character and its behavior duringf the tournaments.
Chula and Pakpao plane at the top of the city, seem to look at itself, to be evaluated, by seeking the best position. Sometimes a chula goes down or a pakpao ventures in height.
Artistic Kite
Clinging to the mercy of the winds, a futile object, searching some new shapes, playing with the colours of the tails: there is in the creation kite fliers' motivations an artistic approach. Genius handyman or creator, kite flyer or plastics technician, each one's contribution goes to make for an unexpected explosion.
The perfecting of new materials, lighter and stronger, have liberated the men ideas of many restraints. So nearly all of the ideas are realisable: the sky is the limit when it comes to the imagination. Today, creative kites could be considered as really true works of art.
For some, this is a play on the shapes and colours, and their different perceptions according to the distance.
The pleasure is in watching some flying sculptures, which draw nearer or move further away from the spectator, offering different emotions. For others, it is the apotheosis of the transparency, place where the light lives, reconciliation place between the sky and the ground, with the purest and the most original place.
For all, it is an occasion to leave the workshop and the pot of paintings to exhibit out at sky instead of in a gallery.
Some "Figures" from the Creative World:
During each Dieppe edition we can meet the biggest creators in the world.
Robert Trepanier - (Canada)
Characters represented on his kites have sometimes deformed aspects, often caricatural : by turns grotesque, tenderizing, seldom worrying.
Since more than ten years, this former champion cycle devotes himself to his flying characters when it does not draw theatre stage sets.
Ton Geers - (Netherlands)
Create kites became an essential leisure, vital for Ton.
His work of artistic director in an advertising agency daily leads him to begin in processes of creation applied, in other words asks him to be with the service of the message which the customer wishes to develop. Ton looked for a personal creation which cannot be associated with other forms of art already existing. The meeting with the kite was randomly made purchase for his son, Ton adopted it at once.
His first achievements were reproductions of Japanese models, but quickly he created new forms inspired of the animals or vegetable kingdom. Kites which sometimes have difficulties in flying.
That does not worry him, admittedly it would be enough for him to change fastening but the interest of Ton is elsewhere : create new forms.
"The forms are always based on the idea that the object must be a kite, but sometimes I do not know if it will fly, the reason is simple, I am absolutely not interested by the technical part of the flight, it is the process of creation which attracts me."
Ton uses indifferently fabric of spi or paper for the aerofoils of the kite, but today, through his various trip (Thailand, Korea) his affinity with paper and the bamboo affirms itself and it's in this direction that his work is directed.
Biography : After studies of design and a specialization in publicity, Ton becomes artistic director, his work thus for different agency of communication and publicity. In 1987, he settles in the countryside and leaves the centre town of Utrecht, it is there that he discovers the kite.
He became one accustomed of the great meetings of kite in Europe.
Philippe Cottenceau - (France)
Since more than twenty years, Philippe Cottenceau has a practically exclusive relation with kite. A relation "which puts to us remotely, us offers to the lapse of memory us same, create like a kind of vacuum in us and allows us at the most point tobe receptive in the world ".
Built with paper and bamboo, fragile and purified, of an almost primitive esthetics, the kite of Philippe Cottenceau are the fruits of a research whichleads to a harmony between the form, the color, flight of the kite (its quintessence, he said) and the text sometimes printed top.
So, this support was binding to Philippe, tracing "an extremely narrow way at the same time, as thin as the wire which connects to us. »
Philippe left us to join definitively the sky, but he will stay forever in our hearts as one of the of the biggest jewel of the kite world.
Franck Schwiemman - (Germany)
"I build and I have made fly of the kites for ten years. That thus represents approximately half of my life".
The kites make it possible to me to communicate with other cultures, other people, to meet friends, to learn art, to play with the force of the wind, to contemplate landscapes and to fly each day..."
Franck Schwiemman
Don Mock - (U.S.A.)
"What are the kites?"
"They are the image of the joy on the face of a child when he feels for the first time the traction which the wind exerts.
They are the image of the miracle of "that flies". They are a way of expressing the artistic inspiration of each man when he tries to find a direction with his action and his existence. They are the miracle which filled sky of beauty when we meet with our brothers of the whole world".
"One of my best memories of youth, it is to be lying in one of the fields of my father, and to feel the tension of the wind on my very simple kite, makes with newsprint and sticks. Kites, it is magic. I think that when we are adult we try to find the share of magic of our childhood, when we express a part of our major heart while playing with kites."
Don Mock
George Peters - (U.S.A.)
George Peters is a man full with energy and wisdom, merry, friendly, funny. It breathes youth and the joy in life.
He is an artist with multiple talents: sculptor, architect, creator of mobiles, designer of costumes of scene and stage sets, draughtsman of animated drawings, advertising illustrator and... kite creator.
And what a kites! His cat-man in black and white and his multicoloured bird-man are famous in the whole world.
Fascinated by the Indians of America which he met when it lived in Phenix (Arizona), he discovered their cultures, in particular that of Hopi Kachinas; those made him discover the direction of the primary colors.
In 1993, it undertakes a long trip (3000 km) in the desert of the AmericanWest.
Nature is his source of inspiration, but he also studies the human culture of flight.
Preferring to work on the characters, George Peters does not wish that his kites are carrying messages, but that they are regarded as objects of lightness, of admiration and grace.
Steve Brockett - (U.K.)
Steve Brockett is part of this generation of young creators of the seventies who took inspiration of their travels in Asia.
Calm and shy Steve Brockett made his first steps in kiteworld aged 7. He enters fine Arts School in Cardiff and becomes a painter. The transition to kite construction results from a long evolution. He takes inspiration from Paul Klee and prefers cotton or polyester to spi canvas.
His works are about spirituality, dream, deities. He aims at refelcting emotions and feelings of people. To make a connection with this other dimension figured by the sky he uses as well representation of human faces as symbolic or supernatural animals ans cosmic elements.
Black birds and dreams lizard of the constellation : the names he gives to his kites show clearly his state of mind, between real and unreal.
Steve Brockett's goal is to try by his kites to reveal invisible elements, to communicate, to set off an emotion or a reaction. Settled in Cardiff areas he owes a workshop where he still paints. He displays sometimes and his work became entirely a support for art and creation.
Istvan Bodozcky - (Hungary)
Istvan Bodoczky, Hungarian artist, professor of art, contributed to the structural and aesthetic evolution of the world of the contemporary kites.
Through his explorations of asymmetrical forms, he incorporates the structure of the kite in other more total designs. By using paper, bamboo and a set of joinings of materials, he extends the definition of the kite.
Istvan started to expose in Budapest. He became famous in the world of the kite when he won the 1st price of the Dieppe creative Kite contest, at the end of the Eighties.
"This is what put to me on the international circuit of kite"
"The invitations to the festivals around the world followed..."
Jacqueline Matisse Monnier - (France)
Jackie MATISSE MONIER bathed as of her birth in the artistic universe where her parents evolve, between New York and Paris. Become artist quite naturally, she knew to exist without having to hold up the family standard.
"I was interested in the kites at the beginning of the Sixties. At the time, the newspapers were impassioned by the space adventure. It was the time of the Apollo missions, everyone sought in the sky. Around me artists, everyone looked at. It was attractive. The space conquest was the visible to the naked eye. We followed the Sputnik, today we see nothing any more. I left in the current.
"With the wire of time, the work of Jackie supported variations on all theme. The attraction of Jackie for the kite is the desire of a certain lightness.
Self-educated artist trained with art by the family and friendly vicinity of great people, Jackie MATISSE takes part regularly in exhibitions in France and abroad.She is also signatory of Proclamation of flying art. Her work wants to be nearest possible nature, far from the walls of the museums, and other galleries.
The DIEPPE Creative Kite Contest
First festival to realize the feasibility that the kite can be used to support the creative imagination. The Dieppe contest consecrated the creators' flying works.
Since then, they have seen their works increased in legitimacy, and have obtained a world recognition on the occasion of invitations by most of the biggest kite festivals.
Hundreds of participants will come from all over the world in order to show the fruit of their work around the theme renewed with each edition.
The Creators Workshop
Initiated in 2002, the Creative Area will be run by the creator kite fliers which will made it into their workshop. At the view of the audience, they will create new works, new kites, based on the Woman theme. That way they will explain to the audience their artistic approach.
A selection of international artists work on very avant-gardist creations.
This workshop should be an area in which the latest developments in art kiting materialize and are presented to the audience.
Participate in this workshop some artists universally recognized as Ton Geers, but also Anna Rubin, and Istvan Bodoczky, etc...
Fighting Kite
Rokkakus, patang, layang layang, pang pae yon.....
By tradition, the kites fighting stir up periodically the heavens of Asia & Latin America, engendering the enthusiasm of everybody. In India, youth, rich or poor have all already known the shudder when they succeed in cutting the opponent line. It is a true air duel.
The play rule is apart from something the same one: manoeuvring their devices in order to destabilize the opponent's one, to make it falling down or to cut his line. In tens, they will clash themselves crossing and uncrossing their line until only one remains: the master of the sky.
There are various techniques of fighting kite : one where it is a question of cutting the wire of its adversary : cut, the other : the Rokkaku fight.
The Manjha Club International (Association devoted to the fighting kite) brings together the best specialists in the world.
One of the most famous festival of fighting kite is the festival of Ahmedabad in India.
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/par-ci-par-la/report-ahmedabad.htm
Sporting Kite
Piloting Kite / Acrobatic Kite
The piloting kite called « acrobatic» is played alone, in couple, or in team with often 4 pilots or even more. It is about true aerial routines often accompanied with music peculiar to each team and each routine.
Very popular, these acrobatic routines give an immediate sensation and provoke full emotions.
The piloting kite became a true sport with its own rules and competitions, a discipline which asks dexterity, and even a true talent in the comprehension of the dialogue between the kite and the wind. In order to prepare the figures, the kite fliers whose practise kite must dedicate many repetition hours.
The Four Lines
The piloting kite with four lines seems able to realize all the possible figures, imaginable and unattainable with a dual lines. It stops, comes back, rises, spinning straight up in the same position, spinning while hovering in the same place. This incredible mobility and manoeuvrability is possible by the modification in flight of the angle of incidence of the kite, thanks to arched handle, specific to this sort of piloting. The four lines kite is a spectacular category in competition.
The acrobatic Routine
The acrobatic routines are very appreciated by the audience. During the festival, this aspect is reinforced by the attendance of the biggest teams in the world. A meticulous preparation in upstream of the festival permit to show quality demonstrations.
In Dieppe, all along the week, the audience observe the best pilots which gather together in order to resent some aerial routines.
Indoor Kite
The Indoor Kite consists in making a kite fly without any wind.
As its name indicates it, the Indoor kite is practised in interior. It can seem incredible for the neophytes that such a practice can exist. Many competitions of Indoor proceed in France and abroad. Here is a small outline.
Le Kite Surf
Swim tractor-drawn and fly-surfing : these two practical made their entry with the Dieppe kite festival in 1998.
Invention of the followers of traction, the fly surfing is halfway between the kite, surfing and the funboard.
That consists in tractor drawing a board of surfing and its pilot on water (on the sea preferably).
The advantages of the kite compared to gréement fixes of a sailboard are numerous : the kite, at the end of its 30 to 50 m of wire, allows to go to seek in altitude of the winds more regular than on the surface of water; the position of the body, with a kite, is less traumatisante; finally, the manoeuvrability of the kite is larger, because it offers the best gone up to the wind.
Practical enough fashionable in Europe, the swim tractor-drawn consists in being made tractor-drawn in water using a kite. The "swimmer" is equipped with a tight combination which helps him to support the many shocks. Indeed, the body of the cervolist, very light compared with the power which the sail of traction can develop, can rebound on the surface of water and the waves and wavelets are as many obstacles on which the body comes to bang.
Traction Kite
The Buggy or Traction Cart
The principle is simple: the machine with two, three, or four wheels (in generally 3, but some of them up to 7!...) a powerful kite and sufficiently swift, an adequate equipped pilot, and now let's roll, by preference on a clear ground.
Traction Chart - Definition, history and initiation: http://membres.lycos.fr/af2c/
Kite Jumping
Kite could let fly! When the kite let flying and begins to let doing figures in the air, we enter in the extreme world of the kite jumping.
The kite jumping is a derived experience of the classic kite, which aim is jumping thanks to the help of the kite.
It exists two sorts of jumps: the freestyle and the big jump.
- In freestyle, the jumper makes some less important jumps in length and altitude but it will execute some figures (from 360° to 720°), some flat spins, pirouettes or somersault. This practise corresponds to a state of mind greedy for liberty and for strong feelings.
- The big jump: it is a question of doing some jumps the farther possible. These jumps are close to the fifty metres. The record of the world of eighty metres is hold by Pierre Cardineaud, French (presented in Dieppe in 1998).
The kite jumping is preferably practised on a flat and dry sandy beach. It must not be forgotten that the kite jumping is an extreme sport, which requires the advice and the supervision of experimented initiates for the debutants.
This practise is very dangerous, that is why she is often strictly prohibited to the non professionals.
In order to offer to the audience a rich and varied presentation of the different kiting disciplines, the Dieppe festival punctually present in collaboration with the Dieppe Kite Club (Cerf-Volant Club de Dieppe)and the Club Saâne Vol libre, some buggy and jump demonstrations during the festival.
The professional monitors of the French Federation of Free Fly advise the novices of these extreme sports.
The Aeolian Constructions
The Wind Corridors
On the earthly scene, they set out their musical and optic instrument which they deliver to a single actor. This actor, never repeats, never follows a choreography or a partition, he could be present or absent, calm or unleashed, always he improvises, it is the wind.
At the time of the 96 edition of the Dieppe Festival, 3 wind musicians proposed their Aeolian composition, in soloist at the four recons of the festival. Since that time, they have called themselves Aeolists. Many at present, they come from France, Germany, Italy and Nederland.
The first Wind Corridors have appeared on the occasion of the 98 Dieppe Festival. Since, these Aeolian structures have evaluated & have been appealed to many festivals in France and abroad, but also by different televisions programs.
Les Ventcourtois - Club from Woincourt (62) Website about kite, aerian photography and wind music. E-mail : bruno.tondellier@wanadoo.fr
Association loi 1901 - www.dieppe-cerf-volant.org - infos@dieppe-cerf-volant.org - 33 (0)2 32 90 04 95
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