Coffee, But Not Really Coffee

Coffee, But Not Really Coffee is a participatory event that uses personal coffee rituals as a gentle way to explore inclusivity, individuality, and cultural encounter. Instead of one “correct” coffee, everyone is invited to prepare their version whatever “coffee” means to them.

That could be: spiced brews, instant mixes, decaf, chicory coffee, mushroom coffee, Postum, chai and coffee fusions, herbal alternatives, experimental blends made for this occasion, or even coffee reading. Each cup becomes a small self-portrait as an everyday ritual that carries memory, identity, and choice.

How it works

A table/bar will be set up with materials and space for participants to make their preferred drink. You can:

• prepare your own “coffee (or not-coffee)”

• chat with strangers about what you’re making and why

• or simply enjoy the atmosphere quietly

As the room fills with different aromas and methods, the gathering becomes a collective performance: individual habits forming a shared space of hospitality and reflection.

Throughout the event, we’ll also screen art-house film fragments featuring curious coffee moments, including:

• Timbuktu (2014, Abderrahmane Sissako)

• Coffee and Cigarettes (2003, Jim Jarmusch)

• Chungking Express (1994, Wong Kar-wai)

• Mustang (2015, Deniz Gamze Ergüven)

Why coffee?

Coffee can be comfort, routine, status, survival, heritage, or simply a way to pause. In many cultures, preparation is communal—an invitation to sit, share time, and witness one another. Here, coffee becomes a tool to meet the “other”: another person, another background, another way of living. To use the ordinary act of making a drink to create an intimate, contemporary space for exchange; inviting participants to slow down, encounter one another, and consider how everyday rituals shape belonging.

Coffee, But Not Really Coffee revisits a 2004 project titled Tea Ceremony, where neighbors from an asylum center were invited for tea. Participants, strangers from different nationalities, shared how tea or coffee is served in their home countries. The point wasn’t only to drink together, but to practice hospitality through giving and receiving. By paying attention to everyone’s tea, we became more aware of our own histories and assumptions.

More than 20 years later, these questions feel more urgent than ever: what can art do amid today’s social challenges, and how do we live inside the tension between belonging and being ourselves?

The capacity is limited for the experience of the event.