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Item: Kleine Caroli
1963
Print
Materials: ink, paper
In the poem Kleine Caroli (1963) the visual aspect of the rhythmic typography does not attempt any formal imitation. The links created between ‘tiflis’, ‘nausica’ and ‘ulyssis’ are not so much elicited by any typographical emphasis but rather by their mutual associations. They relate to Odysseus’ desire for adventure and the deferral of love. ‘Tiflis’, the capital of Georgia in the Caucasus region, symbolises love and the exotic. The main character in the poem, ‘kleine Caroli’, refers to the ‘Ulysses’ in us all, endlessly searching, in this case for the woman Nausica, the female landscape, here surreally expressed as the mountain range that extends from Spain (Cantabria) to the Caucasus, becoming lost in the labyrinth. The essence of this poem is the observation that man still strives for absolute ideals within his own relativity and that of the world around him.
