From
April 12 to April 20 an important bonsai exhibit took place in the
Diocletian's palace in Split, Croatia. It was presented as art
exhibit in a place where objects of art are shown on a regular basis.
Many hundred thousand visitors see the palace over the year and tens
of thousand will see the bonsai exhibit over the Easter holidays. The
article aims at well educated folks who have no or only rudimentary
knowledge of bonsai but are well versed in arts.
Exhibition
of living tree sculptures in Split 2014
Is
bonsai art?
The
art of living tree sculptures is called bonsai in general. It is
remarkable that bonsai is accepted as being an art form here in
Split. In many places around the world this is not so. It has to do
with how bonsai in general is presented and practiced. The truth is
that by and large bonsai is practiced as craft for the production of
commercial products. Most such products resemble stereotypes which
the market wants. And then for some it is questionable whether a
living thing can be art at all. Bonsai is living tree sculptures
changing all the time and this cannot be art for some. In people's
mind bonsai is connected with garden, with garden centers and
horticulture much more than with art. Even in Japan most would
consider bonsai NOT an art form.
Well,
if you ask me, bonsai is widely practiced as craft but it can well be
art. For me personally a tree is art if it is man made and speaks to
me loud and clearly. The trees in this exhibit definitely speak loud
to me.
What
is bonsai and where does it come from?
A
general definition says the 'bonsai'' is a little tree in a pot. But
this is probably not sufficient as a definition. The tree must have
some quality to qualify as bonsai. Most would say that the tree must
look like a bonsai to be a bonsai. But a famous saying in bonsai is
"don't make your little tree look like a bonsai, rather make
your bonsai look like a tree". One could also say that what
looks like a stereotype may well be a bonsai but not art. My
definition is: 'a bonsai is a little tree in a container that makes
move my heart, that touches me. The more it touches me the more it is
art'. The overwhelming majority of bonsai enthusiasts in the world
think that the aim is for a bonsai to be beautiful. Whoever is
somehow in arts knows that beauty has little to do with art, often it
is frowned upon. We are not that far in the art of bonsai but I think
a bonsai can be very ugly as long as it speaks to me strongly. Most
commercial bonsai are beautiful, but sterile. They are made to please
the masses with stereotype tricks to make trees 'nice'. It is called
kitsch. I dare to say that the majority of bonsai in the world are
kitsch according to this definition.
Most
people think that bonsai is a Japanese art form. Well, it comes from
China as most things Japanese. The Chinese had and have mostly a
poetic view about bonsai. It should look like a wild old tree,
sometimes anthropomorphic, sometimes even grotesque. The Japanese
have an idealistic view in general, bonsai for them must look ideal
and conform to rules. The tree sculptures in this exhibit tend more
towards the naturalistic taste and less towards the Japanese taste.
Since
about fifty years the art of bonsai is spreading all over the world.
By now it has become very strong in Europe and ares in Asia outside
of Japan, like Indonesia, and, of course also in the USA. There is a
tendency for the regions to form their own version of bonsai, but
most follow the Japanese model more or less and only develop a local
dialect of Japanese styling.
Bonsai
as the art of living tree sculptures has one most important
peculiarity: the process of creation of art is spread over many
years, even decades and sometimes even over centuries. While normal
pieces of art take some time to process they are finished after some
while and that's it then. A new tree as a piece of material that is
going to become a tree sculpture will usually not be much after fist
styling. It takes several years and constant styling and re-styling
until this can be called 'bonsai'. And then it probably is not even
art - yet. One can say that usually five years of work on a tree are
the minimum before it is acceptable - show able. Well, really even
showing after five years is too early. The same tree will be much
better in twenty years if in the right hands. And even better again
after fifty years. The trees that we see in this exhibit are on
average worked on since five years. So this is very early. The best
thing would be to postpone this exhibit and we all see each other and
the trees in twenty years. This is , of course, only rhetorical. But
it is true that in the art of bonsai the time is always too early to
show a tree. Knowing about this problem of time this exhibit is even
more remarkable as the quality is approaching world class standard
according to my opinion.
Many
people think that bonsai is a species, a special form of tree. Really
any woody plant can be turned into a living sculpture. Most people
use trees from nurseries for this. A few use trees from nature. The
bonsai which are made out of collected material usually are much more
interesting. But is it difficult to style them in a reasonable way.
Natural bonsai don't conform to Japanese styling rules, they have a
strong character and strange behavior. Too strange for most. But the
results, if done well, are much more impressive. It has to do with
the inherent natural character of collected trees. If the aim is to
produce a living tree sculpture which is supposed to look like an old
tree with lots of character then it is a good idea to start with an
old tree with lots of character. This sounds so obvious! But fact is
that 98 % of all bonsai in the world are mad from simple nursery
material. Another fact is that 80 % of the very best trees are made
from collected old natural material. So why don't more people use the
'better' material? It is because it is not easily available and too
difficult for most. First the horticultural skill, we almost can call
it 'art' to first of all find and then to collect a very old tree
form nature and keep it alive. While this sounds simple it is a very
difficult task, too difficult for the majority of trained gardeners.
And then the task to style this raw material so that it looks like
what the artist wants it to look like. This takes artistic skill and
imagination and a vision from the outset that is beyond most who ever
try it. In this exhibit we see very successful creations out of very
difficult material.
What
is the situation with the art of bonsai in Croatia?
Bonsai
is not very common in Croatia yet as active art. Passively, as an art
form for viewers it is probably quite popular. There is only a couple
dozen of what can be called serious bonsaiists in this country. And
only few of them can be called artists. The majority of bonsaiists
here follow the Japanese model more or less, aiming at idealistic
trees which look like bonsai. Another way would be to make a bonsai
look like a real tree - which is what a couple are doing in Croatia.
One
can say that in terms of the art of bonsai Croatia is a developing
country. But it has a hand full of people who work on a European
class level and even on a world class level. Having personally seen
what happed here in the past years, seeing the show able results and
especially the work in progress I see a great future for the art of
bonsai in Croatia. The availability of some of the best material in
the world will help this, of course.
Where
do Marija and Andrija stand in the overall picture?
Marija
Hajdić
and Andrija
Zokić
are working closely as a team and refuse to appoint a certain tree to
either one of them. they are definitely artists in my opinion,
belonging to a European elite of bonsai artists already. They are
specializing in broadleaved trees which they collected themselves for
nature in Croatia. This is something special, as 98% of all bonsai
artists in the world are specializing in conifers.
Marija
and Andrija are collecting the trees themselves from the area around
Split. It is not a given that a bonsai artist is also an expert in
collecting trees - which is a difficult task by itself to do it
successfully. Mariaj and Andrija are trying to make their trees look
like real trees in nature. This is called Naturalistic Bonsai Style.
While this may sound obvious to most it is not obvious - the
overwhelming majority of bonsaiists in the world are trying to make
their tree look like a bonsai.
I
have been closely working together with the couple since 2007. They
started from an amateurish medium level and now are in an
international league already. They have received awards and
invitations in Europe and are featured in international bonsai
magazines around the world. To develop a convincing and very good
bonsai from collected raw material takes many years. Therefore it is
remarkable that after seven years of serious work with bonsai they
have already achieved this level. Knowing what they have in their
collection I can foresee that they will become some of the world
leading bonsai artist in regard to broadleaved species within the
next few years. I am very proud to have been their teacher.
Walter
Pall
www.walter-pall.de
Diocletian's
Palace
Diocletian
built the massive palace in preparation for his retirement on 1 May
305 AD. It lies in a bay on the south side of a short peninsula
running out from the Dalmatian coast, four miles from Salona, the
capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia Roman province of Dalamtia.
After
the Romans abandoned the site, the Palace remained empty for several
centuries. In the 7th century, nearby residents fled to the walled
palace in an effort to escape invading Slaves. Since then the palace
has been occupied, with residents making their homes and businesses
within the palace basement and directly in its walls.[Today
many restaurants and shops, and some homes, can still be found within
the walls.
This
palace is today, with all the most important historical buildings, in
the center of the city of Split. Diocletian's Palace far transcends
local importance because of its degree of preservation. The Palace is
one of the most famous and complete architectural and cultural
features on the Croatian Adriatic coast.
As the world's most complete remains of a Roman palace, it holds an
outstanding place in European and world heritage.
Here the trees
