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Hanoi - Cafe Reality

I was greatly concerned about what the regular customers, along with the cafe staff, would thing of my effort. The installation would be a sudden and dramatic transformation. Though it was clearly a direct complement about the cafe I was far from certain that everyone also would connect with my vision. One effort to woo the colas was to make all the components of the installation for sale and part of the sales would go toward a "coffee fund".

The fund would provide free coffee days for the regular patrons of the Ta Hien Cafe. One Tuesday Julian and I made a late night blitzkrieg effort to mount the installation after the cafe had closed. The previous day the cafe had locked like if had always locked, more or less. The next morning the cafe had experienced what might be called a "radical makeover".

Nervous as I walked into the cafe to have my ritualistic morning coffee I was greeted by wide smiles and bright faces. They loved it! People shook my hand, patted me on the back and excitedly pointed to their likenesses on the walls. Someone had paid attention to them - the forgotten older men who in my opinion were part of the foundation, the backbone of Vietnam. My friend Duc was exuberant in his appreciation and especially warm towards me that morning.

This installation "The Green Screen" was homage to the Ta Hien cafe in the heart of the Hanoi�s Old Quarter, and most importantly to the special people who go there. This modest cafe was built in 1950s and has remained mostly untouched since then. It is one of the last remaining original cafes in central Hanoi - they are a disappearing species. This kind of cafe�s days is numbered, at least in its present state, as it is impossible to preserve anything completely - change spares nothing. People are constantly changing so why not the buildings they inhabit?

Still there is a comfort and richness in nostalgia. Memory can sometimes take a physical form and that can be very goof thing indeed. The Ta Hien is a fraying and yellowing snapshot of an era that preceded my own and I wanted to document the cafe before it changed into something else. This installation was the end result of that initial impulse. My hope it that "The Green Screen" transcended basic documentation and became a reverent celebration of this unique style of Hanoi cafe - the swan song of the Ta Hien Cafe.

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