The end of the Soviet Union gave many peoples in
Eastern Europe the hope of rapid change and more freedom. The reality of
democratic self-governance proved less rosy, as ordinary people profited little
of the new capitalist model. This meant that people sometimes left the city, so
buildings without a use fell into disrepair and the already abandoned buildings
started to crumble and decay through the 1990s and the following decade. In
2004 Hungary joined the European Union and another wave op optimism swept the
country. The result was mostly large-scale EU-funded projects like Metro Line 4
and the restoration of the various Unesco Heritage sites.
Impatient with the pace of modernisation, young people
started to unite and start up their own project to create places to work,
congregate, exchange ideas and so on from 2000 onwards. This resulted in
abandoned buildings and sites being reclaimed for use as urban gardens, bars,
restaurants and sharing-libraries. Szimpla Kert (Simple Garden) was the first
of the so-called Romkocsma
(literally: Bar in a Ruin) that opened in an abandoned building in 2001. Together
with Food Trucks and Backyard Restaurants, Ruin Bars are part of the Pop-Up
trend that expressed the desire of young Hungarian urbanites to develop their
own current culture. There are an impressive number of vegetarian eateries
among these initiatives.
The Pop Up trend firmly gripped the imagination after
2010 when the first food trucks started to appear. The first Food Truck
Festival was so successful that nowadays abandoned plats house groups of these
food trucks as an impromptu eatery. A well-known example is Karaván (left).
Pop-up restaurants also appear on abandoned plots (Ráckskert on the right) or
in empty buildings (Kazimir Bistró shown in the middle).
Pop Up restaurants and Ruin Bars like Szimpla Kert try
very hard to radiate counterculture, but are to popular to truly succeed.
Instead this Ruin Bar behind the ruined facade (on the left) is bustling with
tourists and looks like a flea-market has exploded in a squat as every corner
is crammed full of second hand reused furniture and bric-a-brac.
No comments:
Post a Comment