FAIRY SALES: THE BUDAPEST INTERNATIONAL FAIRS AS VIRTUAL SHOPPING TOURS

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FAIRY SALES: THE BUDAPESTINTERNATIONAL FAIRS ASVIRTUAL SHOPPING TOURSOttó Gecser & Dávid KitzingerPublished online: 09 Nov 2010.

To cite this article: Ottó Gecser & Dávid Kitzinger (2002) FAIRY SALES: THEBUDAPEST INTERNATIONAL FAIRS AS VIRTUAL SHOPPING TOURS, Cultural Studies,16:1, 145-164, DOI: 10.1080/09502380110092235

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Abstract

Shopping tourism has been a widespread phenomenon since the emergenceof the modern consumer culture. It has played a crucial role in the for-mation and transformation of the structures of wants by constructing anddisplaying tangible instantiations of cultural otherness. By centring ourpaper around the concept of ‘virtual shopping tours’ we would like to makesense of the historical and theoretical momentum of shopping tourism inthe context of the socialist shortage economies. In post-war Central andEastern Europe travelling to the West was few people’s privilege; never-theless, almost everybody was interested in, fantasized about, and imitatedWestern trends. Our attempt is to understand how people sought infor-mation and tried to keep up with the Western world in their lifestyles. By‘virtual shopping’, we mean a sort of quasi-consumption where the choiceof goods is shown but not or not immediately available. Visiting inter-national commercial fairs – just as discussing the inaccessible goods seen inWestern movies or in expired catalogues of Western department stores –was among the chief occasions for virtual shopping tours. The BudapestInternational Fairs have been the greatest and most signi� cant fairs inHungary since the 1890s. Focusing on the post-war period, our paperdescribes the changing selection of goods, explores the hidden political andcultural functions of the different forms of display, and analyses the atti-tudes of the various groups of visitors and the meanings they attached tocertain products and practices.

Ottó Gecser and Dávid Kitzinger

FAIRY SALES: THE BUDAPEST

INTERNATIONAL FAIRS AS

VIRTUAL SHOPPING TOURS

C U LT U R AL S T U D I E S 1 6 ( 1 ) 2 0 0 2 , 1 4 5 – 1 6 4

Cultural Studies ISSN 0950-2386 print/ISSN 1466-4348 online © 2002 Taylor & Francis Ltd

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

DOI: 10.1080/09502380110092235

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Keywords

consumer culture; consumption; international fairs; shopping tourism;socialist economy; virtual shopping

Who could count how many journeys abroad are tantamount to anabsorbed walk in the Fair?

(Népszabadság, 17 May, 1963)

TH I S S T U D Y I S N O T strictly about shopping tourism but about its back-ground in Hungary in the socialist era. What we are dealing with here is

the rise and satisfaction of wants in an economy of shortage and the way con-sumer culture gained ground. We try to understand how people built and main-tained their identities through consumption without real choice, how they soughtinformation and tried to keep up with the Western world in their lifestyle. Thescarcity of goods to purchase often meant that consumption preferences couldnot be realized in actual buying practices. To understand the structure of wantsand shopping tourism in Eastern Europe we have to examine the virtual experi-ences and imaginary ful� lment of consumer wishes. By ‘virtual shopping’, wemean consumption where the choice of goods is shown but not or not immedi-ately available. Thus consumption is con� ned to gaining information and exper-imenting with shopping activities because of the scarcity of resources or lack ofpossibilities. Without the chance to realize choices, the term virtual shoppingrefers to the wants that play a role in the construction of cultural identity ratherthan everyday needs. This kind of consumption characterizes socialist economiesof shortage where citizens were not able to de�ne their social or personal selvesthrough consumption. For example, browsing in expired catalogues of Westerndepartment stores and discussing their contents was a kind of virtual shopping.A child’s-game version of this practice consisted in opening a catalogue or maga-zine at random and taking possession of an object by quickly hitting its picture.Discussing the clothes and furniture seen in Western � lms or visiting inter-national fairs were also virtual shopping experiences. The greatest occasions forcollective virtual shopping for Hungarians were provided by the Budapest Inter-national Fairs (abbreviated BNV in Hungarian) – of� cially arranged directencounters between Hungarians and Western goods. For the non-privilegedmajority, it was their only chance to get a glimpse at the objects of Western life-styles. Until the end of the eighties, when a world passport for Hungarians wasissued, the international fairs were extremely popular. Around one millionpeople visited the Fairtown every year to see not only new domestic products,but also, more importantly, to learn about the props of desired ways of life andto be up-to-date.

In order to grasp the kind of in� uence the international fairs have had on theevolution of socialism in Hungary, we want � rst to introduce a conceptual

C U L T U R A L S T U D I E S1 4 6

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scheme which distinguishes various ideal types of public display. We will rely onthis scheme in our discussion of the history of Hungarian international fairs. Wewill focus on the period from the late � fties through the early seventies whenwelfare socialism was taking shape, and the fairs prompted debates on whatdemands, practices and, most importantly, lifestyles were acceptable to the Partyafter the 1956 uprising in Hungary.

Modern forms of public display

The international exhibition, together with the museum and the departmentstore, are typically modern institutions of public display. Each of them emergedin the nineteenth century as a speci� c form for the representation and celebrationof the progress of mankind (or rather, West European and North Americansocieties) which, at the same time offered space for attempts to reform themanners of the lower classes. Their counterpoint – pre-modern in origin, butubiquitous even today – was the carnival or festival with its essentially subversive,lower-class character. Finally, there is a � fth element that went into the consti-tution of the modern forms of public display: the politically neutral commercialfair of medieval origin.

The systematic differences between the department store and the museumcan be well grasped by the � ve dichotomies listed by Pierre Bourdieu in a studyon art perception (1993: 298; see � gure 1). We can add to these a further dis-tinction: while the spectator of an object in the museum keeps looking at everyparticular shape and constellation of the displayed object, seeking for the signsthat betray the intention of its maker and/or of the exhibitor (Baxandall, 1991),these intentions are manifest in the department store. For all these differences,the two institutions have a common function. Both were ‘formally open spacesallowing entry to the general public, and both were intended to function as spacesof emulation, places for mimetic practices whereby improving tastes, values and

T H E B U D A P E S T I N T E R N AT I O N A L F A I R S 1 4 7

Department store Museum

noise silence

touching seeing

quick scanning exploration in no leisurely methodical inspection following a

particular order �xed arrangement

freedom constraint

economic assessment of purchasable aesthetic appreciation of ‘priceless’ works

products

Figure 1 Systematic differences between the department store and the museum.

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norms of conduct were to be more broadly diffused through society’ (Bennett,1995: 30).

We have to note two other two types of public display: the festival and thefair. They lack the Foucauldian instructive-regulative character or the intentionto demonstrate progress or other hegemonic political values. They are basicallyinstrumental, in the service of their respective publics: the tradesmen in a speci� cbranch of commerce and local lower class groups. The differences between thecommercial fair and the festival can be also indicated by adapting Bourdieu’sdichotomies (see � gure 2)

Brief history of Budapest fairs

We know that we do not have to feel disgrace for our window shoppingculture.

(Hungexpo – Fair Chronicle, January 1968)

Where should we locate the BNVs among the forms of public display in Hungaryof the 1960s and 1970s? Their history started with the Millennial Exhibition in1896, which celebrated the 1000th anniversary of the conquest of the countryby the Hungarians. This event with its 21 thousand exhibitors and 6 million vis-itors is comparable in scale to the great international exhibitions of the nine-teenth century (see � gure 3). The Millennial Exhibition – just like theExpositions Universelles or Great Exhibitions of the nineteenth century – wasintended to represent the cultural and industrial progress of the nation. From art(Munkácsy’s ‘Ecce Homo’) to technology (Tivadar Puskás’ ‘Telefonhírmondó’1 )the most diverse kinds of artefacts were exhibited. In its conception it was closerto the museum than the department store and closer to the festival than to thecommercial fair. With its nationalistic goals and rhetoric it was a local rather thana cosmopolitan event. It wished to display Hungary’s national economy to theworld and to demonstrate its successful industrialization to her citizens.2

The exhibition took place in the new City Park which was to remain the siteof the BNVs until 1974. Although formerly on the outskirts of the city, the area


Commercial fair Carnival or folk festival

delayed purchase immediate purchase

constraint freedom

work entertainment

professional inspection simple looking around

Figure 2 Systematic differences between the commercial fair and the carnival.

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soon became an organic part of its growing centre. The City Park lay in the mainaxis of the expansion of the building boom of the late nineteenth century. Thesigni� cance of the location was enhanced by the surrounding construction pro-jects in and around the City Park: the �rst underground train of the Continenttaking passengers to the entrance of the fair; a new boulevard leading to the rep-resentative Heroes’ Square � anked by two museums, the Museum of Fine Artsand the Palace of Arts. Out of exhibition times the City Park served as a popularamusement park with ale and wine houses, restaurants, the Budapest Zoo and astanding circus. The new Fair Town built in 1974 to meet the new demands of amodern international exhibition is located in an industrial area which has not,and probably will never be integrated into the life of the city.

Between 1896 and 1948 the exhibitions remained in their style nearer themuseum, slowly approaching the ideal type of the commercial fair. Their of� cialname was Budapesti Árumintavásár (Budapest Industrial Sample Fair). They formedpart of a protectionist economic policy: until 1948 foreign exhibitors were notallowed to display product types that were also manufactured in Hungary. In1912 the Hungarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce accordingly declaredthat the fair was:

[. . .] to spread knowledge about the market and a continuously develop-ing industrial technology; to popularise Hungarian industry in Hungary; toincrease Hungarian industrial exports; to develop tourism in Hungary; andto acquaint Budapest, Hungary, and the Hungarian economy with foreign-ers.3

(quoted in Kapalyag, 1992)

The � rst fair after World War II and the only one until 1955 took place in1948, the year of the communist takeover. It was called the Centenary Fair, com-memorating the centenary of the 1848–49 War of Independence and celebrat-ing the successes of post-war reconstruction. It also wanted to help forget, withits carnivalesque entertainment facilities and shopping opportunities, the


Number of visitors (million) Number of exhibitors (thousand)

1851 London 6 14

1855 Paris 5.2 20.8

1862 London 6.2 28.6

1867 Paris 11 43.2

1873 Vienna 7.2 25.7

Figure 3 The visitors and exhibitors of the �rst European international fairs. Source: based

on Plum (1977).

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sufferings of wartime privation. It was a festival rather than a commercial faircloser to the department store model than any of the earlier exhibitions.

In the period of extreme economic centralization between 1949 and 1955there were no exhibitions at all. They were made super� uous by an economicpolicy that subordinated every economic transaction to planning by the statebureaucracy. The political leadership preferred other means of public legit-imization, especially sports and the cinema.

From 1955 to the mid-sixties the expositions, called Budapest IndustrialFairs – BIV, were of a predominantly industrial character (see � gure 4). A newtype of fair appeared in 1968, called the Budapest Autumn Fair (B Õ V), whichexhibited consumer goods only and re�ected the cautious political and economicliberalisation of the system.4 Investment goods were exhibited in the spring, con-sumption goods in the autumn. Until the seventies the exhibitors were not sep-arate � rms but nations. With time passing, the economic function graduallyprevailed over the representational, that is, the spring exhibitions approximatedthe ideal type of the commercial fair while the autumn exhibitions with theirshopping opportunities that of the department store. The separation of the fairof consumption and investment goods had changed the face of the fairs. TheAutumn Fair became an entertaining virtual shopping festival where few goodswere actually on sale. Its shopping and entertaining facilities made it similar to ahuge shopping mall, and at the same time, it was a special periodical event, some-thing out of ordinary that made the fair a carnival of consumption.

Fair narratives

We may consider the BNV as a communication event, where the exhibitors rep-resented the meanings they wished to convey to the visitors and to one another


Exhibitors 1957 1958 1959 1960

domestic large-scale industry 173 321 547 487

light ind. 142 135 79 118

co-operative 271 253 227 329

craftsmen’s co-operative 287 284 179 96

All together: 873 983 1032 1030

Foreign - 73 139 99

Foreign trade companies of socialist countries – – 299

Exhibiting companies from capitalist countries – – 390 398

All together: 873 1050 1322 1428

Figure 4 Table of exhibitors. From the �nal communiqué of the BIV – 1960.

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through displaying certain sets of goods in a certain manner. The machines andconsumer goods, the arrangement and order of the pavilions, the display of prod-ucts all communicated a certain reality in which everybody was to � nd a placefor themselves. This aspect is referred to by Greenhalgh in connection with thegreat international exhibitions of the nineteenth century:

As the visitors meandered around the site, they would be continually bom-barded with arguments as to the function of the State and its various off-shoot institutions, the buildings, art objects and entertainment structuresgradually becoming fused in their minds with these messages.

(Greenhalgh, 1989: 94)

The French exhibitors at the Crystal Palace, for instance, used this opportunityto de� ne the bourgeoisie in terms of consumer choices, tastes and practices. Theyexhibited high-quality luxury items manufactured on a small-scale (e.g. homefurnishing and decoration, household appliances, clothing, etc.), whereas Britishexhibitors displayed the cheap mass-produced consumer goods of their concen-trated industry. Walton claims that the French display, on the one hand, aimedto assure a speci� c position for the French industry in the world market as theproducer of tastefully designed high-quality goods. On the other hand, it wantedto represent the values of the type of social order the bourgeoisie aspired to main-tain (Walton, 1992).

Something similar took place at the BNVs which also created striking imagesof the contemporary social order.5 In socialist Hungary the ideological messagewas far more dominant and explicit while the number of relevant participants in


Expert/professional display Spectacular show

education entertainment

white coat glittering costumes

factory home, public places

working hours free time

assembly shop shop window

advantage, pro�t pleasure

quantity measures quality measures

community individual

practicability beauty

neutral characteristic

process of production usage

Figure 5 The change in the form of displaying products.

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the discourse over meanings was far smaller. Hungarian citizens could notexpress their own preferences and taste to the same extent as did the nineteenth-century bourgeois. The domestic exhibiting companies were directed by the statebureaucracy, the exhibitors of ‘friendly’ countries and of the Soviet Union weredominated by the same ideological standpoint. Only Western exhibitors couldcreate alternative images with their presentations. Until the mid-sixties, whenthe West German ministry of trade distributed provocative � yers which com-pared the living standard of West and East Germany, the organizers had notsupervised the foreign displays.

The overriding importance of the need to support also by texts the messagestransmitted by objects is characteristic of the perils of the new public sphere.Such an exposition could become dangerous with its comparison of the achieve-ments of capitalist and socialist countries, the interpretation of the meanings hadto be �xed. Yet the fair opened a new stage of limited publicity of discourses onachievements, consumption, lifestyle, representation, etc. Despite the fact thatthe media were under strict ideological control, of� cial and popular accounts ofthe fair were very similar. The media were, � rst, expected to communicate themeanings attached to the exhibition by the leadership and, second, to adjust theseof� cial meanings to the expectations of the various consumer and reader groups(youth, women, farmers, workers etc.).

The most important change in the period under discussion (i.e. the sixtiesand seventies) is the transition from a warfare economy to a socialist welfareeconomy. During the consolidation of the Kádár regime (from the suppressionof the 1956 revolution until 1963) the main message of the organizers and thepress was that the situation was getting better and better, the country hadreturned to the right direction, and the national economy was continuously gainin strength owing to the help of friendly countries. In an interview for Népsz-abadság, Dr Ferenc Münnich, a member of the Political Committee gave the keyfor understanding the actual aims of the BNVs:

The fair re�ects the life and dedication of our people, symbolises the joy ofsocialist creative work, and shows that together with the leadership of theparty and the government we proceed on the right way.


From 1963 (the year of the amnesty granted to the revolutionaries), the organ-izers began to communicate the achievements of a developing society which wasmarching towards communism. In their texts almost all adjectives are compara-tive, everything is better, bigger, more successful than before. The whole societyis en route to a richer, happier world, to an ideal communist society. A newmeasure appeared in these years, and comparisons more and more emphasizedthe international standard instead of the Soviet example. This feature indicatesboth the opening of the system and the endeavour to connect it to world trade.


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All the fairs after 1963 aimed to prove the competitiveness of planned economy.Jeno Fock, then prime minister, declared that

We are able to produce on world standard. Even design is very importantin the industry. The show convinced me that the programme of the 8thcongress – namely to satisfy better and better the demands of our people– can be carried out.


The ruling Socialist party started to stimulate consumption for reasons of legit-imation and the fairs suggested an expanding set of acceptable needs and wantsto the visitors. Among other typically Western products Levi’s exempli� ed thenew sort of wants:

As living standards rise, demands for a diversi�ed market for fashionablegarments rise and supply must be up to this. Supply has grown, particu-larly garments with favourable psychological features. This is apparent � rstof all in the knitwear industry, while in co-operation with Levi Strauss aproduction programme is now underway to supply jeans, mainly for youngpeople.

(Hungexpo – Fair Chronicle, December, 1972)

The organizers placed ever greater emphasis on individual ways of obtainingsatisfaction as opposed to the feelings of contentment derived from membershipin the community. This indicated a new notion of modernity, which tended toappeal to people’s everyday needs and pleasures rather than to the futureadvances of industrialization. The BNVs and the discourse evolving around themplayed a signi� cant role in the de� nition of socialist consumerism and acceptablelifestyles.6 János Kádár emphasized this when he declared, that

[W]e approve of someone saving up his money if it was earned byrespectable work and buying a TV set, a refrigerator, a motorcycle, a caror anything else for himself, travelling or building a family house.

(quoted in Dessewffy and Hammer, 1996: 34)

The representational function continuously prevailed over the economicalfunction of the BNVs; the fair merely served as a stage to present achievementsand set new aims. There was not much trading at the fair – the business execu-tives of the huge socialist companies pretended to sign several contracts on thespot, but actually all these agreements had already been negotiated in the previousyear. This arrangement made the exhibitors concentrate on the representation ofthe achievements of their respective national economies rather than on trading.As György Oblath, the Chairman of the Supervising Committee of Hungexpo,


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recalls most fairs he visited all around the world from the 1950s until the 1970swere quite similar in this respect. Mr Jakab, the chief architect of the fairs fromthe sixties until the eighties, highlighted this characteristic by referring to theinternational trend that had changed the design and appearance of pavilions. Forthe great expositions of the nineteenth century the exhibitors built very expen-sive and spectacular buildings in which to display their goods. Some of these haveremained to become important landmarks of the cityscape. From the middle ofthe twentieth century, pavilions became more modest in outward appearance butimpressive in their interior design. The bare facade and the glamorous interiorwere reminiscent of shopping malls. Finally, since the late seventies, as the fairsbecame in fact a site of real trade negotiations and contracts, pavilions and standshave been simpli�ed in interior design and become restrained in the use of decor-ation. This transition from an exhibition representing political values to a com-mercial fair, was delayed in socialist Hungary until the end of the 1980s.7

Visitor roles

Until the early sixties the directed and limited publicity supported work-relatedspectator roles. Visitors in fact often accepted and identi� ed with the offeredrole, some enthusiastically assuming the position of a competent worker. A jour-nalist of the Party’s of� cial daily (Népszabadság) copied out typical commentsfrom the 1958 visitors’ book8 of the Soviet pavilion:

It is such an uplifting experience to see this and know that one day it willbecome true over here too – Elek family

Strength, beauty and a deep concern for mankind radiates from all thepieces exhibited in the pavilion – Mrs Kovács

We all went around this splendid pavilion and our heart throbbed withexcitement and pride. With a thankful heart and true love of peace – TiborKrencs

The Soviet pavilion proves that the industry of the socialist system is theindustry of the future – Béla Kelemen, Technical Rubber-factory

I’m a textile-worker, and I am familiar with textile products. The productsof the Soviet textile industry are really beautiful – Mrs Faragó

I have never seen such wonderful, modern machines before – Tót(Népszabadság, 24 May, 1958)


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It was still a long way ahead until the newspapers could � nally declare: ‘Themajority of the visitors of the fair are not businessmen or experts, and they areinterested in the products of light industry’ (Szabad Föld, 19 May, 1968). By thenattention had already shifted to addressing individual consumers at these visitorfriendly fairs. An article popularizing modern meals quotes a note from thevisitors’ book: ‘Yesterday was the � rst time – thanks to the instant soup – thatmy grandson asked for a second helping. – Grandma.’

The exhibited goods and their presentation

The composition of the exhibited goods had also changed. Beside raw materialsand investment goods more and more consumption goods appeared on the fairs.During the period under discussion the ‘props of good life’ gained ground bothon the fairground and in its media coverage. The goods related to leisure –weekend houses, gardening tools, beachwear and beach props, sailing boats, do-it-yourself kits, etc. – took up more and more space. From the late 1950s thefashion shows were very popular events of the fairs, from the mid-sixties theleisure – and the sportswear industry also displayed its products in this shows.One of the much-frequented pavilions housed the interior design exhibition. In1970 and 1971 a separate fair was organized for household appliances and inte-rior design. Instead of big agricultural machines the goods made for individualconsumption – motorbikes, cars, motor boats – attracted the crowds. Theelectro-technical pavilion showed household appliances and novelties in enter-tainment electronics: TV sets, radios, tape recorders. The displayed wonders ofmodern technique emphasized not the so much human progress as carefreewealth, and a continuously rising standard of living.

Not only the assortment of goods changed, but their presentation as well.White-coated experts used to demonstrate the products and explain their func-tion at professional-type educational presentation. At the 1958 BNV the tele-vision audience could follow the assembly of TV sets, while an engineer in awhite coat explained the process.9 A few years later, when television sets becamemore common in households, Videoton1 0 organized a competition for the visi-tors. The ‘Voluntary Simon Templars1 1 ’ – as a journalist referred to the com-petitors – had to � nd the 10 defective machines among the exhibited 120 sets.The lucky winner of this quality check competition won a high quality Munkácsytelevision that could boast 12 channels, even though there was only one Hun-garian television programme at the time and the facilities for the reception offoreign broadcast were also lacking. In 1963, instead of white-coated engineers,young people with paper shakos did the twist to advertise a stereo tape recorder,although only a year earlier an article published in Magyar Ifjúság (the of� cialmagazine of the Communist Youth Association) had revealed to its readers that


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the twist was spread by the YMCA and the Vatican as a means to lay their handson the young generation.

In the spirit of nineteenth-century modernism exhibitors and commentatorspreferred to measure achievements in quantitative terms, similarly to the Britishexhibitors at Crystal Palace. Quantity affects quality, they believed. Productswere described chie� y in terms of high performance, high voltage, hi � . Thetypical units of measurement were horse power, tons, megawatts and kilometres.The size of a pavilion was taken to be proportional to the large territory and thegreatness of a country. Recalling the 1941 Agricultural Exhibition a journalistemphasized the relevance of the Soviet exhibition in the following words:

The � rst time the Soviet Union exhibited her products in Hungary was in1941. Even then they had the largest pavilion. The Italians lagged behindwith their 100 sq. meters, while the German pavilion was quite small incomparison. [. . .] A huge crowd gathered long before the opening cere-mony to visit the pavilion, thanks to the propaganda by the illegal com-munist party. Soon a 300–400 meter long queue lined up in front of theSoviet exhibition. The curious crowd then crashed through the woodenbarriers.


Similarly, in 1968 the modernity of the taste of Hungarian workers was seenre� ected in the number of inquirers per hour about metallic tubular furniture(the exact number is 3000 per hour).

Assembling radio and TV sets or rolling shutters on the spot, in full view ofthe visitors, was not meant to illustrate how these appliances should be used orto integrate them into particular lifestyles (which is typically what TV commer-cials do), but to familiarize visitors with the process of production. It initiatedthe visitor into the mysteries of production. The expert display of the punch-card-operated lathe, the automatic sole vulcanizer or the peaceful applications ofnuclear energy, every instrument and machine was to evoke the realm of facto-ries and a communal spirit. The encounter of visitors and exhibitors resembledan extended factory visit or workshop demonstration. Separate pavilions weredevoted to the various branches of industry, like machine industry, light indus-try, textiles, gum, wood, etc., unconnected to the use or actual availability forindividual customers as in a big department store. Practically, every domesticvisitor was subordinated to a ministry and, thereby, to a pavilion, a section, a pro-ducer by virtue of belonging to a profession or trade. In accordance with theirassignment and addressing every visitor could actually be an exhibitor at the sametime. The organizers offered a symbolic vantage point from which a vista of amass of factories opened for people to survey their own achievements andfuture.1 2

Visitors, however, became less and less interested in the achievements or


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results of production and more in the affordable goods on display. They came towindow shop. As the women’s magazine N õ k Lapja commented on the 1968 fair:

We women, we just love window shopping, and the fair is nothing else butan enormous shop-window, the shop-window of numerous cities and coun-tries. The exhibiting companies are care about our opinion. We really hopethat the goods will appear in the shops and we don’t have to walk our legsoff while looking for them.

1 3

(N õ k Lapja, 24 May, 1968)

Fashion shows were gaining in importance from the late 50s on. In 1958 thelatest fashion was presented eight times a day at the fashion theatre of the Min-istry of Light Industry. Although the articles of clothing worn by the models werenot available in the shops, this concentrated window-shopping exercise did in factin� uence domestic fashion. Information collected at the BNVs, as well as thedesires it aroused, were transmitted to the seamstresses in the second economyor ful� lled by the privileged few able to travel abroad. The division of labour wasusually as follows: the Ministry of Light Industry organized and arranged thefashion show, the spectators made their choice from what they had seen, anacquaintance, a friend or relative obtained the piece of cloth needed and a seam-stress made the dress following the speci� cations by the customer. The gapbetween the dresses worn at Hungarian fashion shows and the supply in state-owned shops was as wide as the one between haute couture and the streetwearof tomorrow. Even the settings and staging of these displays were so celestial andunrealistic that no-one could actually imagine these garments would ever beavailable at the cornershop.

The visitors are practically walking in the halls and gardens of worldfamous museums or renaissance palaces. As we enter the pavilion weglimpse the facade of the Louvre. In front of this shop dummies representthe cotton industry. To the sound of a gong the two dummies rise, adesigner and a model step up to the platform. The former improvises infull sight of the public and dresses up the model by winding pieces of clotharound her body. When he is ready he steps to the microphone andannounces the manufacturer and the brand name of the cloth he hasworked with. After a deep gong the light goes out and colour fashion � lmsrun on the screens. . . . It’s a veritable fashion revue with backgroundmusic but no comments. . . . One can � nd here a novelty as well: the man-nequin dummies stand on a 2,5 diameter disc. There are control tableshidden in the � ower-beds surrounding the exhibition and the visitors canspin the mannequins by pushing the buttons. The mannequins take twoslow turns to display the dress they wear. An illuminated sign indicates theproducer company’s name. At the location of last year’s fashion show four


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paternosters work with a mannequin in each box. The elevator moves thedummies between the two � oors.

(Hungexpo – Fair Chronicle, July,1968)

The carnevalesque of the fairs

One of the recurring problems of the BNVs was that many of the domestic prod-ucts were made only for display. The satirical weekly Ludas Matyi referred to thisby the following cartoon: ‘Someone asks a group of exhibitors what they aredoing. “We are celebrating”, they reply, “our hundredth promise that we will alsoproduce what we exhibit” ’ (12 June, 1958). In the light industry pavilion of the1963 BNV this ‘availability problem’ takes the form of a commedia dell’arte fea-turing prime minister Jenõ Fock and Mrs Nagy, vice-minister of light industry:

Standing in front of the showcases full of shoes comrade Nagy pointedproudly to the products – ‘These children’s shoes are of excellent quality’.Comrade Fock couldn’t stand to remark jokingly: ‘And will they be of sucha good quality when they reach the shops? Mrs Nagy promised to take careof that.


High-quality domestic goods were produced and exhibited to reduce the senseof inferiority in relation to Western consumption goods. But visitors knew wellthat these products were only for the showcases or for export. Although thisstrategy gained �rst prizes to excellent domestic goods, it had not satis� ed citi-zens – it only accelerated the growth of wants. Not only Western products werehard to get to acquire, the same was true of domestic products and goods fromother socialist countries. Almost all products shown were inaccessible for thevisitors. The exhibited range of products was only there for virtual shopping.

Proper comparison of domestic and Western products would have beencounterproductive for the organizers’ purposes had the public taken suggestionsof this kind seriously. In spite of a permanent grumble over the gap between thechoice in the fair’s showcases and the shops in town, visitors used the fair not forconfrontation but as a source of information and entertainment. They acceptedtheir assigned role in the play staged at the BNV. As the above-mentioned formerchief architect of Hungexpo told us, visitors wanted to have a good time withtheir family or friends at the BNVs while looking around, haggling over prices,having cheap beer and barbecue.

The organizers, in order to rid the fairs of their carnivalesque character,speci� ed in the 1960 fair regulation that

On the whole area of the fairground it is strictly prohibited to sell cheap


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bazaar articles and goods or balloons in small shops or stalls; to set up anymachines for amusement; to offer cheap entertainment (such as drawingquick portraits or caricatures, graphology, creating silhouette images,etc.); or to play music unless it is of� cially arranged for.

(Catalogue of BIV, 1958)

Still, the BNVs were more and more overwhelmed by entertainment facilities.From the very beginning of the period in question almost all the services typi-cally offered by modern shopping malls were provided. Temporary bankingpoints and post of� ces were set up where people could buy and mail postcardsspeci� cally designed for the BNV; tobacco shops were opened with a full choiceof Hungarian products available (and also selling a brand speci� cally designed forthe BNV); promenade � ights were offered by the Hungarian airlines; the state-owned radio station was there to broadcast and deliver the messages of the visi-tors to their relatives, friends and colleagues at home; and the one and onlyHungarian travel agency also set up an of� ce on the fairground. The most popularhairdresser companies and beauty salons demonstrated their services and prod-ucts, held shows and consultations for females.

The fair offered a growing number of spectacular shows and entertainment.State-sponsored � lm studios displayed the stage sets of popular Hungarian enter-tainment movies and period � lms; famous celebrities and � lm stars distributedtheir signed photographs. Widely acclaimed pop singers brought their latestalbums to gain more popularity. Special programmes were organized for chil-dren, and dance shows were held.

Certain events were continuously taking place. They de�nitely coloured thegeneral atmosphere yet they did not receive any media coverage. Fortunately, wecan rely on the recollections of many among the 1 million visitors per year. BNVswere also large-scale encounters between the country and the capital visited bymany members of agricultural cooperatives. Several companies or �rms gaveextra days off so that employees would visit the fair as a strongly recommendedgroup activity. The state-owned railway company offered reduced fares; school-children were transported to the fair in groups.

Various restaurants and eateries played a signi� cant role in the everyday lifeof the fair. Those responsible for the organization of the exhibition paid specialattention to ‘catering for the needs of the workers longing for refreshments’(beer houses, wineries, taverns, dairies, sweet shops, etc.). The reduced pricesallowed everyone to indulge freely in these everyday luxuries. Another popularevent was produced by foreign exhibitors who allowed people to taste their foodspecialities like real Brazilian coffee. The restaurants were mainly frequented bysimple visitors, whereas the exhibitors liberally bought each other, as well as theiracquaintances meals, especially drinks exploiting their company’s representa-tional budget. One interviewee describes this as a nice folk tradition where theparticipants of economic life invite one another, several company badges, ties,


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ashtrays, lighters, etc. change hands while the managers and trade union chair-men are drinking heavily together.

Consequences of virtual shopping tours

The fairs offered a “virtual” shopping experience to visitors. Shopping in theshortage economy meant exhausting daily routine, ‘walking one’s legs off’ forordinary goods, lacking polite and competent service in the shops. At the BNVs,by contrast, the visitor could try out almost all the facilities a Western consumeruses, learn about new trends and ideas, feel respected by the personnel, runaround with plastic shopping bags, etc. Mr. Pittermann, the Austrian vice-chancellor at the time remarked to the journalist of the of� cial party daily:

I love Budapest very much. The Hungarian people are just as cheerful asthe Viennese. The bustle of the fair is as if I were in the Kärtnerstrasse.


The brochures and � yers of the exhibitors, especially of the Western exhibitorswere the ‘best-sellers’ of the Budapest fairs. These were used for furthershopper’s training practices: discussing the products shown and their preferencesfrom a practically non-existing choice with friends. In addition to the social ben-e� ts of being well informed, the high quality layout of the � yers also had a greatappeal.

A growing number of organizers and exhibitors stressed the importance ofmarket research and of direct encounters between manufacturers and con-sumers. The above-mentioned vice minister Mrs Nagy – vice minister of lightindustry – even admits the necessity of marketing:

It will become clear to the visitors that the companies now were well awareof the fact that their task was not only to produce goods but also to sellthem. Therefore, in addition to the representative function of the fair, itsreal market character – the contact between buyers and sellers and saleitself – should be in the focus of attention.

(Hungexpo – Fair Chronicle, January, 1968)

Grant McCracken (1988: 123–4) calls ‘Diderot unities’ the patterns of con-sistency, which make all the goods belonging to particular lifestyles harmoniouswith each other in a way characteristic of the respective lifestyles. Consequentlythese patterns and nom-speci� c separate goods are meant to constitute lifestyles(as far as consumption and consumer goods are concerned). This explains the‘Diderot effect’: a force that encourages the individual to maintain a cultural con-sistency in his/her complement of consumer goods. It is possible to achieve


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either by preventing the ‘existing stock of consumer goods from giving entry toan object that carries cultural signi� cance that is inconsistent with that of thewhole’ or, by giving way to ‘the creation of an entirely new set of consumergoods’ (McCracken, 1988: 119).1 4

The exhibitors displayed sets or stocks of consumer goods exemplifyingvarious Diderot unities. These Diderot unities were absolutely different fromthose familiar to the surrounding various consumer groups visiting the BNVs.From 1968 onwards, the organizers and the exhibitors deliberately tried to in� u-ence consumer practices. Displayed goods were grouped into six categories:clothing, home, housekeeping, food supply, leisure, traf� c. These were the areasof private, i.e. unpolitical life.

The BNV sometimes functioned as a living TV commercial attempting toexplain, for example, the adequate use of ‘modern’ devices (TV sets, refrigera-tors, etc.) and the way they could be integrated into particular lifestyles. The cat-egories of ‘home’, ‘housekeeping’ and ‘leisure’ are of outmost importance. Forexample, in the case of a new living-room furniture many who had the means tohave their furniture made by a cabinet maker would not have bought it completein a department store. Or those who had a weekend house furnished it with wornpieces of their homes. Using McCracken’s terminology it is a special Dideroteffect which separates the house and the cottage leading the removal of Diderotunities from the town to the cottage.

The whole socialist economy and social order, together with the lifestyles itpermitted, could be described as a ‘Diderot unity’. The new dressing gown whichdisrupted the consistency in this context was the display of Western goods onthe BNVs. The exhibition of these goods made them accessible, at least virtually,to many consumers. To some extent it could substitute real consumption, butinformation about alternative lifestyles produced new demands and a furtherneed of information. If the desire for a speci�c object emerged, people sooneror later found a way to acquire it. Policy makers tried to keep up with newdemands by producing substitutes (Trapper for Levi’s, or sports car © kodaOctavia for Porsche). They also tried to respond to these needs by promising andexhibiting domestic products of the same kind and quality. But in most cases thesehigh-quality goods remained unavailable in the shops: the factories manufacturedonly a few prototypes for display on the fair. The wants aroused by the displaysalso increased the blackmarketeer’s turnover and shopping-tourism . Peoplespent huge fortunes on getting the desired goods from abroad in order to createtheir ‘Diderot unities’. As it became possible people strove to make the most oftheir virtually accumulated experiences on their shopping tours around in orderto satisfy their carefully preserved and maintained dreams.


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Notes

1 Telefonhírmondó was the � rst information and broadcasting service via tele-phone lines.

2 Werner Plum (1977) pointed out that one of the main functions of world exhi-bitions was to communicate a belief in the reuni� cation of divided mankind bythe language of technology. The synchronization of national celebrations withinternational expositions was usual in the nineteenth century. ‘If centennialcelebrations and the like tick to the clock of the nation, marking its passagethrough calendrical time in drawing up symbolic inventories of its achieve-ments, expositions tick to the international time of modernity itself. Theymark the passage of progress, a time without frontiers, while the inventoriesthey organise are, at least ideally, ones which mark the achievements of thenationally undifferentiated subject of humanity. This is not to suggest a com-plete dissociation of these two temporal registers. Indeed, expositions haveusually aimed to overlap these two times – of nation and of modernity – onto one another by projecting the host nation as among the foremost represen-tatives of the time, and tasks, of modernity’ (Bennett, 1995: 209–210).

3 Although predominantly cosmopolitan in character, the great internationalfairs of the nineteenth century limited the space allowed to foreign goods toabout one-third of the display area.

4 For introduction to socialist economy and ‘market’ see Kornai (1992: chs 6,7). From the 1970s, both the BIV and the B Õ V began to be referred to as theBudapest International Fair (BNV).

5 Our � ndings are based mainly on the analysis of two types of media, which wecall formal and semi-formal. By ‘formal’ we mean newspaper articles in theleading dailies (Népszava, Népszabadság, and the Hungexpo – Fair Chronicle)serious in tone and written in the peculiar jargon of the ruling party, whichconveyed the meanings attached to the exhibition by its organizers and nationalpolitical leaders without any attempt to adjust these to the language, taste,worldview and self-image of the various social and cultural groups. Othermedia such as N õ k Lapja (Woman’s Magazine), Ludas Matyi (a satirical weekly),Magyar Ifjúság (the of� cial magazine of the Communist Youth Association) andFilmhíradó (the weekly newsreel programme shown before the feature � lm inevery cinema all over the country) too relied more and more on the feedbackfrom their respective audiences. The journalists tried hard to keep to theof� cial line and yet address the public more directly. We call their texts semi-formal.

6 The importance of consumption entered the political discourse with the econ-omic reform at the end of the sixties. This reform attempted to diminish theweight of direct control and planning in the national economy. Central plan-ning was replaced by indirect regulators. The new policy also hoped to stimu-late ‘healthy’ competition among independent domestic companies for thefavour of consumers (Petõ and Szakács, 1994; Szakács, 1998).

7 The supplement of the leading Hungarian economic weekly on the exhibitions


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pointed out that foreign, as well as the domestic exhibitors were shocked tosee the crowd of visitors around and they are complaining about having towaste too much time on mere onlookers (Jakus, 1998).

8 The original visitors’ books perished when an of� ce burnt down in 1995.Writing in the visitors’ book was a form of anonymous protest in Hungaryeven before the Communist regime. The Soviet pavilion of the 1941 Inter-national Agricultural Exhibition was the � rst time that a Communist countrydisplayed its products in Hungary. A 1958 newspaper article claims that visi-tors’ book was � lled with comments three times a day and had to be hiddenfrom the secret police.

9 The � rst television programme was broadcast on 1 May 1957. Initially, TV setscost about two months’ wage of a skilled worker. Only a very few could affordit until the mid-sixties. Whole neighbourhoods gathered to watch the pro-gramme in the homes of the lucky, on hot summer evenings the sets were putoutside in the courtyards. Watching television was a truly communal activity.

10 The � rst Hungarian television company, formerly a Shotgun CartridgeFactory.

11 The Saint was one of the � rst Western serials on Hungarian television. Ofcourse, the episodes about KGB agents were not included.

12 Every classic world fair boasted a kind of lookout point that commanded a � nelook of the whole sight of the fair. The Budapest Fairs lacked this facility bothin the City Park and Fairtown, therefore MALÉV (Hungarian Airlines) offereda promenade � ight to the visitors.

13 Although the majority of the women was employed full time their in� uencepredominated in socialist consumerism since the home and the householdremained their responsibility.

14 The notions are based on a short essay by Denis Diderot entitled ‘Regrets onparting with my old dressing gown’. In this essay Diderot tells a story in whicha new dressing gown, a gift from a friend, gradually changes the appearanceof his entire study. Being delighted with his new garment Diderot began to feelthat his desk, chairs, bookshelves, tapestry, etc. were not in harmony with it,and piece by piece replaced his whole furniture. But later, sitting in his newstudy, he looked back with regret upon his old, comfortable closet and con-cluded that all of his sorrow had been the work of an ‘imperious scarlet robe[which] forced everything else to conform with his own elegant tone’(McCracken, 1988: 119).

References

Baxandall, Michael (1991) ‘Exhibiting intention: some preconditions of the visualdisplay of culturally purposeful objects’, in Steven D. Levine and Ivan Karp(eds) Exhibiting Cultures. The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display, Washington:Smithsonian Institution Press, 33–41.


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Bennett, Tony (1995) The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics, London: Rout-ledge.

Bourdieu, Pierre (1993) ‘Outline of a sociological theory of art perception’, inRandal Johnson (ed.) The Field of Cultural Production. Essays on Art and Literature,New York: Columbia University Press, 215–37.

Catalogue of the BIV (1958) Budapest: BIV.Dessewffy, Tibor and Hammer, Ferenc (1996) ‘A fogyasztás kísértete’, Replika, 26:

31–46.Greenhalgh, Peter (1989) ‘Education, entertainment and politics: lessons from the

great international’, in Peter Vergo (ed.) The New Museology, London: Reak-tion, 74–98.

Hungexpo-Fair Cronicle (1968) January and July.—— (1972) December.Jakus, Ibolya (1998) ‘Kiállításszervezés. Vásárok a piacon’, HVG, 21 February.Kapalyag, Imre (1992) ‘A budapesti nemzetközi vásárok története’, in Imre Kapalyag

(ed.) A magyar vásárok 150 éve, Hungexpo: Budapesti Kereskedelmi és Iparka-mara.

Kornai, János (1992) The Socialist System.The Political Economy of Communism, Oxford:Clarendon Press.

Ludas Matyi (1958) 12 June.McCracken, Grant (1988) Culture and Consumption, Bloomington, IN: Indiana Uni-

versity Press.Nèpszabadsàg (1958) 24 May.—— (1963) 17–18 May.Nõ k Lapza (1968) 24 May.Pet õ , Iván and Szakács, Sándor (1994) Magyarország negyven évének gazdaságtörténete,

Budapest: Kossuth.Plum, Werner (1977) World Exhibitions in the Nineteenth Century: Pageants of Social and

Cultural Change, Bonn: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.Szabad Fõ ld (1968) 19 May.Szakács, Sándor (1998) A Kádár-korszak gazdaságtörténetének f õ bb jellemz õ i. Online.

Available: http: //www.mek.iif.hu (10 May).Walton, Whitney (1992) France at Crystal Pallace.Bourgeois Taste and Artisan Manufacture

in the Nineteenth Century, Berkeley: University of California Press.


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Documents

FAIRY SALES: THE BUDAPEST INTERNATIONAL FAIRS AS VIRTUAL SHOPPING TOURS