Actual

The exhibition introduces us the recent past and the present of the coffee-houses, coffee bars and cafés of Budapest through the photos by Aliona Frankl and Géza Nagy. The visitor may take a glance at the golden ages, the “glorious past”, but also at the coffee bars of the socialist era, to even better appreciate the survivors and the reviving, the new “old” places, the trendy cafes with a Parisian atmosphere, the nooks, the gardens, the “general shops” operating arm in arm with theaters, cinemas and book stores, or the internet-cafés, plaza-cafés, and the American café-chains using paper-cups.

The coffee houses used to be the “day-care centers” of the city bourgeoisie, and these days they seem to regain this function again. Trying to fit into this new society of ours, the way we try to fit into them ourselves. Those who managed to fit in know what a joy it is to be a popular host or a regular guest. The picture is yet obscure, there is too much light, the shadows are too deep, and of course we are watching it close up – but at least there is something to watch!