E04 | | The Challenge of Leadership

After years of struggling Masashi Hirao feels he is finding clues to bonsai’s future, changing bonsai’s image of tired old men pruning trees. He has a radical idea to challenge tradition further at the 3-yearly international Setouchi Triennale, the largest art event in Japan. Masashi will stage an Avant Garde personal exhibition as well as a ground-breaking solo performance climaxing with a collaboration with a radical, anti-modernisation punk band, in direct contradiction of Masashi’s mission. It will be a bonsai showdown. Tradition and modernisation clashing head on. Is it possible to pursue change, and preserve tradition? Masashi is in unexplored territory.