PRAGA

This weekend we were in Prague. The capital of Czech republic impressed me again. Completely preserved old city is fantastic. Outstanding architecture, details which enthuse, silhouettes which pay a glory to artists from the past ...

Ta konec tedna smo preživeli v Pragi. Češko glavno mesto je name spet napravilo izjemen vtis. Ohranjen stari del mesta je fantastičen. Izjemna arhitektura, podrobnosti, ki navdušujejo, silhuete, ki pojejo slavo umetnikom iz preteklosti.

We were there for a Czech national exhibition. With their long tradition they are among the most bonsai-developed nations in Europe. Exhibition was held in old Strahovsky monastery, in it's cloister. The atmosphere was meditative but the trees were somehow lost under vaults ... As usually the pots were great. Even a completely average tree was planted into a outstanding pot. Czech have a really great potters!

Namen obiska je bila češka nacionalna razstava. Z dolgo tradicijo Čehi sodijo med najbolj bonsajsko razvite evropske nacije. Tokrat je razstavo gostil Strahovsky samostan in njegovi križni hodniki. Vzdušje je bilo gotovo posebno, meditativno, a drevesa so se kar nekako izgubila pod oboki ... Tako kot običajno so navdušile posode. Še tako povprečno drevo je posajeno v vrhunsko posodo. Čehi imajo res izjemne lončarje!

The main demonstrators were Rob Kempinski from USA and Toru Suzuki from Japan. I really don't like to criticize my fellow bonsaists because I know how difficult is to show everything you know at the demonstrations. But Rob did show a really bad technique this time. His excuse is maybe the fact that he was working on Pinus sylvestris for the first time ... I am sure that he knows to deal better with the subtropical species that he usually works on!

Glavna demonstratorja sta bila Američan Rob Kempinski in Japonec Toru Suzuki. Zelo nerad kritiziram kolege bonsajiste, ker tudi sam predobro vem, kako je včasih na demonstraciji težko pokazati vse kar znaš. Žal pa je Rob Kempinski tokrat pokazal res zelo slabo tehniko in razočaral. V opravičilo mu je morda to, da je na rdečem boru delal prvič ... Prav gotovo subtropske vrste, na katerih dela običajno, veliko bolje obvlada!

Toru Suzuki

Rob Kempinski

American way ... This time - no good!

The interwiev with president of Czech bonsai association Vaclav Novak will be published at web pages of Slovenian bonsai club, the reportage from Prague will be also published there!

Intervju s predsednikom češke zveze Vaclavom Novakom bo objavljen v spletnem časopisu Slovenskega bonsaj kluba, tam bo objavljena tudi širša reportaža o dogajanju v Pragi!