The first news of café-bars in Mecca begin in the XV century. During the XVI they become apparent in Cairo and Syria, 1554 opens the first café-bar in Constantinople, but in the XVI century the enjoyment of coffee is carried over from the East to the We
Already in 1522 year the first café-bar in Belgrade is marked, 1592 in Sarajevo, 1640 in Venice, 1652 in London... This and many other interests in line with coffee and café-bars the visitors to the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade could learn about, who had the opportunity from the August 20 to the September 5 to look at the exhibition “European Road of Coffee”.
- During my exhibition (paintings and sculptures) in the Youth Theatre of Novi Sad, Radmilo Mulić, writer and publisher, actually the organizer of the exhibition, showed me his collection of objects tied to coffee. That is when he told me a fact that Belgrade was the first European city on the road of coffee from Ethiopia towards Europe, which had a café where coffee was drunk and sold. The first café-bar was opened in 1522, somewhere near nowadays Dorćol (District of Belgrade). His idea to display the collection in my studio, which was located in the vicinity of the café-bar of my grandfather, I pointed instead towards the Ethnographic Museum and in that manner came to the realization of this exhibition – explains Rade Marković, together with Radmilo Mulić author of the exhibition on coffee.
Marko Andrejic
Exhibition, Etnographic Musem Belgrade
image:56577:2::0
|
The showing has four panels: the first displays how coffee overtook the European cities. The second - collection of objects from Radmilo Mulić and a part of the collection of the Museum of Forgotten Arts, and the company “Manual” from Novi Sad.
- This panel had for its goal to show the creativity and weight of the human spirit, which displays itself on objects from everyday life, that it is always looking for something, it repairs and leaves the old, it creates the new – resounds Marković and continues: The third panel are Belgrade’s old café-bars. That was given because it was tied to the first café-bar on the land of Europe. The fourth panel was coffee (and café-bar) as an inspiration to the artists, and the continuation of the story of the human spirit and the unstilness that keep it moving, all in all like us two authors of this story.
Marko Andrejic
Exhibition, Etnographic Musem Belgrade
image:56582:2::0
|
During his choosing of objects to present, author did not lead with a historical chronology of the use of the objects, but instead with a wish that the showing would be visually and narratively as interesting as possible for the general public. According to his words, that is how the visitors participated in one performance that could be called sentimental archeology, where everyone could find one’s own or family history. Taking into consideration that the exhibition brought about significant interest, and numerous visitors, it looks as though most found that personal piece of history.
With the coming of new times and often new owners, Belgrade’s café-bars have lost much of their authenticity, and the old Bohemian quartets have been changed with modern cafeterias. The rich offering squeezed some of the traditional ways of preparing and drinking coffee, and that is why in the center of Belgrade it is almost impossible to drink the old good homemade, also better known as “Turkish,” coffee.
- I think that Belgrade café-bars throughout time are changing quite chaotically adapting to the almost always humble materialistic opportunities and political surroundings. As far as the culture of drinking coffee, it is only recently experiencing its vanity and determining different standards in consuming coffee thanks to the opening of branded coffees and the opening of society as a whole – concludes Rade Marković.
