Çavuşoğlu and Bojanov commissioned and filmed five virtuoso gypsy musicians in the small border town of Kesan, Turkey. The town is the centre of a Rom (Gypsy)community, in an area referred to by Çavuşoğlu as “the end points of the European idea”. The Romany population in Kesan was forced to settle in the 1923 population exchange and is steeped in Greek-Turkish gypsy musical tradition and history.A multi-screen video installation brings together individual footage of the musicians to
create a harmonious audio-visual piece of synchronised sound and imagery. Shot individually, each musician plays their individual part in surroundings familiar to them –their home, the town’s port, the furnace of a brick factory. The group’s music travelsthrough a range of styles embracing Turkish, Greek, Rom, Jewish, Bulgarian, Armenianand Arabian.
Çavuşoğlu and Bojanov also asked each musician to choose a location of their choice from in and around Kesan for a solo piece. The resulting films are very personal, each musician playing directly to camera a favourite piece from their traditional repertoire. Choosing a variety of locations including a nearby beach, the forest on the town’s outskirts, a pigeon coop, the melancholic films work to reveal the dreams and desires of a generation of people who, until recently, have been banned from extensive travel.
courtesy Haunch of Venison/Zürich