T.A.M.A. Sentimental is part of an on-going project that concerns a historically nomadic Gypsy community (originally from Romania), a branch of which settled in Greece, in the Menidi area on the outskirts of Athens. [...] With settlement forced upon them as an independent, minority group, they were pushed to the edges of society. These gypsies took abode on the edge of the city and were relegated to the status of a marginal culture, simultaneously ignored and ostracized, mistreated and misunderstood. Within this altered sociological context, changes have occurred in their communicational dynamics.

T.A.M.A. Sentimental, which comprises an installation that re-enacts a communal seating area commonly found inthese gypsy communities, is a proposal that aims to offer or rather, to replace the psychological support systems which havebeen lost to these now no longer itinerant populations, so as to help them to come to terms with the drastic social changes that have been inflicted upon them. A Gypsy musician – the protagonist – set within this simple shelter, dexterously plays mesmerizing gypsy melodies on this clarinet, creating an enchanting atmosphere.

Catherine Cafopoulos

Excerpts from a previously unpublished text, 2002.