T.A.M.A. Sentimental
2002
Audiovisual Media
Video
Video
Colour, with sound
Duration: 3′
Donated by Dakis Joannou, 2025
Inv. No. 1736/25
Maria Papadimitriou’s video T.A.M.A. Sentimental, turns a deeply personal lens on one of the most renowned Greek musicians, the flamboyant folk and traditional clarinet virtuoso Giorgos Mangas, whose iconic performances at festivals and concerts are the stuff of legend. T.A.M.A. Sentimental is part of a larger project by Papadimitriou titled T.A.M.A. (Temporary Autonomous Museum for All), which the artist initiated in 1998 in collaboration with a Roma community in Avliza, Menidi, and presented in 2002 at the Greek Pavilion of the 25th São Paulo Biennial. T.A.M.A. was not an actual museum with tangible, physical boundaries, but rather a living space inseparable from the very community whose life it documented. Its goal was to foreground the community’s history, defend its members’ rights, and negotiate their integration into Greek society while allowing them to hold on to their specific identity and culture.
In T.A.M.A. Sentimental, the sound of Giorgos Mangas’s clarinet reaches the viewer from a large screen not merely as background music, but almost like a lullaby. The camera focuses on the musician’s deft hands, from which music emanates like an embrace folding in the entire community, a reassuring promise of protection as night falls upon the toil of the day. Expressive and emotionally charged, the video creates an immersive experience that serves as both a tender gesture of care and a reminder that music is a language without borders, capable of bridging worlds. Especially when it comes to traditional Romani music, it is worth considering that it transcends not only historical time but also the geographical boundaries that separate the peoples of the Balkans.