One part of The Bonsai Project consists of a series of localized bonsai trees. As you can see on our poster of the Dutch Beech, we make a distinct choice to remove the trees from their original context.
In this video, we show what we leave out during our shoot in the Penshin Museum in Yangzhou, China.

December 2009 we travelled to China to explore the origins of bonsai. In Yangzhou, we arranged to interview Zhao Qingquan, vice-president of the Association of Penjing Artists of China. Zhao Qingquan is the director of the Slender West Lake garden and an internationally acclaimed penjing master for several decades. For the interview we worked with an English interpreter who was appointed to us by the municipal foreign affairs office. We were interested in meeting a man who devoted himself entirely to penshin; the Chinese miniature landscape art from which bonsai evolved. What is his motivation? What does penshin mean to him? What did he learn about penshin?

During the interview we felt that a lot that was being said was lost in translation. We gave away control in trying to do an interview in Chinese. When questions are translated, answers are translated and reactions are translated. What is left? We think this is what both gave us the urge to keep something real from this encounter.

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The Carpinus Betulus is a broad-leaved tree that belongs to the genus Betulaceae (Birch). This tree is indigenous to West, Middle, and South Europe and to West Asia. In the Netherlands the Beech grows in the southern (South Limburg) and eastern (Gelderland, North Brabant) parts of the country. Being a tree that thrives on clay soil, it is often used as a hedge tree in large parts of the Netherlands.

20 Years ago, this Carpinus Betulus (left) was dug up from the 3 metres high hedge row in a backyard (right) in the city of Leiderdorp (N52°09,761 – E04°32,411) by Mr. Teunis-Jan Klein. After years of care and dedication, this is its new shape. The tree has almost finished its training into a bonsai. It is now 115 cm high and 35 years old.