One room, 15 demonstrators and I imagine quite a few egos! working on amazing yamadori trees… it was quite a feast for the eyes. It was actually more the 15 because some artists had UP TO 5 assistants all working frantically to complete their projects in the allotted time. Here was an opportunity to showcase your talent/bonsai school to a very large audience.
Was it worth driving for 21 hours and 1122 miles (1805 km) one way to participate in a bonsai show? The answer on this occasion is a resounding YES as THIS was no ordinary show. Arco Bonsai Club and UBI invited the cream of Italian (and invited guest… ME!) to the XVI° CONGRESSO UBI and XXVII° ARCOBONSAI.
Almost 100 trees were exhibited with sixty selected to be featured in the annual book. There were a few trees familiar to me but most were new trees that I had not seen before. As you would expect the majority of bonsai were Mediterranean species, Olives, Pines, Junipers and Myrtles however in the show were a few oaks, hawthorns (including mine) and beech. The exhibition was made up of many large and VERY large trees. I counted only 10 trees that were Chuhin or smaller. There was only one display of Shohin. The judging of the trees took EIGHT HOURS and was headed up by Enrico Savini, great care was taken as the previous year a lot of controversy surrounded the selection of prizes.
The venue is the Casinò Municipale (it’s NOT a Casino) in Arco, Trentino which is in the far north just south of the Austrian Border… and what a great venue! The exhibition halls are baroque and very ornate the demo rooms (15 Italian artists all working at the same time) were large and well lit. A huge bonus was a café/bar on site (Superb Coffee 1€) that was the meeting and chilling place for the event. When the sun did shine everyone sat out on the veranda.
Over 45 traders selling all things Bonsai filled the outdoor and the entrance to the show. Noticeably there was the very large amount of Yamadori sellers however the stock on sale was surprisingly poor…any real quality was over 2500€. There was a great selection of potters but NONE from the UK (see my opening sentence) Next year the show is in the south of Italy, this will add a further 800 miles to my journey! But when good coffee is only 1€ I’m not complaining.
It is 6am and I cannot sleep as I am recovering from a gastronomic extravaganza that was the Saturday night Arco Bonsai Party. We know that the bonsai in Italy is amongst the best in the western world but bonsai came a close second to food last night. If a nation can be defined by one thing then for Italy it has to be food. Clubs from the four corners of Italy brought their regional delicacies, Cheeses, salami’s, drinks, bread… great pride was shown when cheese or ham was offered… Yes there was beer and wine as you would expect at a good party but here is a list of what I remember!
Lemons, beans, mozzarella (large and small), breads of all shapes and sizes, HOT pancakes cooked on a table stove filled with Nutella, over 20 different sausages and Salami, biscuits, olives, olives in Grappa, anchovies, so many different cheeses, a hot chilli paste?, dried meats carved at the table, homemade wine and spirits… and finally (my favourite) a spirit made from the fruit of the Myrtle tree. A large group from Austria got in on the act and brought Snapps (excellent). There was an ‘official’ meal included in the ticket but this was upstaged by all the gifted delights.
It WAS a party, and boy do the Italians know how to party; Adriano Bonini dressed as a Padre with a friend dressed as a nun (with beard) gave blessings to the assembled. The band played ‘O sole Mio’ and the roof lifted as everyone sang along (me too) and the wine flowed.
The formalities included announcing the winner of the new talent and the presentation of UBI prizes. The speeches totalled LESS than 5 minutes for the whole evening… hosted by a senior (I am being kind here) gentleman in a long multi coloured WIG! Such was the atmosphere of the night, these guys were there to have a good time… there was even dancing.
These two tables are for sale at Arco Bonsai in Italy. The first is very rough wood with barbed wire as featured. The second table was competed and then burned to create the effect you can see here. Beautiful… yes I think so. The maker told me that this was ‘Italian style’
I started my European Tour at 6.00am on Wednesday, made it to the Eurotunnel on time after meeting up with Stone Monkey (this is another blog post to follow). The gods were not looking favourably as the weather for driving was terrible and the ring road around Brussels at rush hour is NOT the best at any time! I arrived at the Noelanders’ Club at 7.25pm only 5 minutes before the start.
Bad weather in Belgium
A ‘friendly’ crowd at The Noelanders Club
It was a good turnout of 60 members considering the weather. I stayed the night with Stéphane Van Lind and his family and the next day held a workshop for six guys. Some nice trees were worked! Then it was a six hour drive to my overnight in Stuttgart.
My GOD the Germans drive fast! So I had to join them. My AVERAGE speed being 105mph sometimes driving at 120mph! At 5.15 am I set off for Arco, I had six hours FAST driving ahead of me, through some beautiful countries.
I had no time to soak in the beauty
Italian Police want to what is in my car
Getting into Italy was ‘interesting’ the Border police wanted to know what I had in my car. As you can imagine they were fascinated… they held me up for 25 minutes, and I was already on a tight schedule. I arrived in at 11.00 with one hour to spare to have my tree registered for the event, and it is from here that I am posting.
Outside the venue at Arco Bonsai
Arco is a beautiful town about 2 miles from Lake Garda in Italy. The venue is in the Municipal Casino (it’s not a casino) I will be posting a full report about the event soon.
Juniper on a rock at Arco
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