eciec.eu | Entrepreneurial Cultures in European Cities

The exhibition Let’s Have a Coffee, Views of Zagreb Entrepreneurs on the Culture of Coffee Consumption, of the Zagreb Ethnographic Museum is a result of the two-year research conducted within the scope of the project Entrepreneurial Cultures in European Cities.

Let's have a coffee - in the Zagreb Ethnographic Museum

The immediate reason for choosing this subject was that coffeehouses and cafés, as places of coffee consumption, offer an interesting perspective for studying contemporary life of urban dwellers and their lifestyles. Since the subject matter is very interesting, we decided to observe it from a broader perspective, i.e. to approach it from a culturological point of view and present through several thematic units.

In the first thematic unit, entitled The Story of Coffee, we presented the history of coffee from cultivation to production, described how coffee arrived in Europe and spread across the globe and showed local peculiarities such as the ritual of preparation and drinking Ethiopian, Arabic and Turkish coffee. Considered a luxury product in the 19^th century, coffee was served only in aristocratic and rich bourgeois families. At the beginning of the 20^th century, with the establishment of the Franck factory and the beginning of production of coffee substitute, “white coffee” entered the daily life of urban and rural dwellers. In the next part of the exhibition, entitled From Coffeehouse to Café, we used the reconstruction of authentic ambience and the film “Corso Coffeehouse” to present the interesting history of coffeehouses, which dates back to the mid-18th century and persists to the present day. Besides coffeehouses, cafés became popular meeting-points of Zagrebers of all generations since the 1970s. In the part of the exhibition entitled Views of Zagreb Entrepreneurs on the Culture of Coffee Consumption, we showcased the film Let’s Have a Coffee! which highlights the importance of innovativeness and creativity in the development of the business concept and business offer of Zagreb café owners.

The last part of the exhibition - Coffee as a Stimulus for Socialising - features artistic work resulting from investigation of the social relevance of coffee and expressed in conceptual artistic language. The famous multimedia artist Dalibor Martinis presented his performance Coffee with President Dalibor Martinis, young artist Maja Rožman served her Beverage for Artists, while Jasenka Bulj and Vanja Zarić presented their photography project called Kavica-Coffee. The special value of this project is the cooperation with the Museums of Zagreb - the Zagreb City Museum and the Museum of Arts and Crafts, as well as with the Croatian Film Archive and Imagine IC of Amsterdam. Diverse activities related to the culture of coffee consumption (art performances, lectures, workshops and coffee promotions) will be organised during the exhibition.

Let’s have a coffee (poster pdf) / Pictures in the Gallery

LET’S HAVE A COFFEE  -  8 May - 17 October 2010

Zagreb Ethnographic Museu, Trg Mažuranića 1, 10000 Zagreb/Croatia

Tel.  00385 (1) 4826 220; Fax  00385 (1) 4880320   emz@emz.hr; www.emz.hr

Opening hour: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday     10 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Friday, Saturday, Sunday  10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Closed on Mondays

Project manager and exhibition author: Zvjezdana Antoš, M.Sc., Senior Curator

Exhibition design: Nikolina Jelavić Mitrović

Exhibition collaborators: Marija Živković, Mirjana Randić, Bojan Mucko, Željka Kolveshi, Marina Bagarić