Page 17 - BSAM 2017 Q4

Facing page; Jean-Paul Polmans, the artist who styled this bonsai will be one of the invited demonstrators at the BCI International Convention in France in October 2018. This page, top; The frst exposition of bonsai in the West exhibited mostly azaleas. Bottom; The recent congress of FFB (French Bonsai Federation) took place in the south of France at Prades-le-Lez. The very frst bonsai exhibition in the Western world took place in Paris in 1878! Tis is the starting point for the promotion of the Art of Bonsai to the entire world. Now, 140 years later, France again welcomes the international world of bonsai with the 2018 BCI International Convention. Tis is the opportunity to enjoy French bonsai that have received benevolence from the bonsai gods. Bonsai in France since 1878 A gentleman by the name of Mr. Kasawara was the frst to exhibit bonsai in the West, during the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1878. A number of these bonsai were sold to French amateurs, others to the future king of England, Edward VII, who took them to his castle in Sandringham. Tese trees were then imported into the USA and some of them, azaleas, are still alive in private collections.