artist's publications

THE BEST OF NO-TAV



The Best of NoTAV is a songbook that includes lyrics, contextual notes and reinterpretations of 15 songs from the No-TAV struggle.
Conceived as an historical documentation of the struggle, narrated through its own songs, the work also functions on a performative level. The ironic and seductive character of the musical rearrangements easily infiltrates the listeners’ attention, inviting them to sing aloud on their own.



The publication of the songbook is accompanied by the music video The Golden Years of San Didero. The video includes footages shot by the political police on Dec. 8, 2011, during a demonstration against the newly installed TAV construction site.


You can order a physical copy by writing to: baitabaita AT riseup DOT net. All the proceedings will go to the NoTAV movement and to the Anti-repression Fund of the Western Alps (Cassa Anti-Repressione delle Alpi occidentali). Note: first edition available only in Italian.
Download the pdf of the songbook here.

More about the No TAV struggle: https://www.tni.org/en/article/no-tav-feeding-the-fire-of-resistance-in-northern-italy.

WHEN SOUND ENDS



This book is a translation of a series of actions that I conceived and performed as part of the project When Sound Ends.

Primarily intended to be experienced live, the actions and associated artifacts act as witnesses – often silently – to the impermanence and fragility of the body. The presence, absence and loss of sound become a metaphor for the human condition.

This book in turn functions as a sort of remembrance which allows these actions to live on in another medium, in another body.

design: Davide Tidoni
hand-binding: Tatsuya Inuikawa
dimensions: 108×150mm
number of exemplars: 10
year: 2022
orders: write to baitabaita AT riseup DOT net

The book exists in 10 different exemplars, each with a different number of pages. Each exemplar bears unique burn marks.

WHERE DO YOU DRAW THE LINE BETWEEN ART AND POLITICS?



Where Do You Draw the Line Between Art and Politics? consists of a series of interviews with individuals who have been active in various capacities at the intersection of art and politics.

Between historical documentation, political memory, dialogic reflections, and motivational support, the publication focuses on the experiences, commitments, and feelings that animate and inform aesthetic priorities in social spaces both within and outside of art institutions; a repository designed to inspire and encourage the politicization of aesthetics, as opposed to the aestheticization of politics.

The people I interviewed are: Pietro Perotti, a Fiat worker and self-appointed worker communicator; Lucia Farinati, a researcher, activist and independent curator; two anonymous members of a hacker collective working in the field of technology and urban space; Errico Canta Male, a singer-songwriter; and Mario “Schizzo” Frisetti and Luca Bruno, of the Torino Squatters.

Read the introduction of the book.

design: Marzia Dalfini with Davide Tidoni
producer: a.pass in collaboration with nadine
publisher: a.pass
distributor: a.pass and Compulsive Archive
number of copies: 500
year: 2021
orders: write to baitabaita AT riseup DOT net

ULTRAS KARAOKE



Ultras Karaoke is the karaoke version of a series of football supporters’ chants. The lyrics of the supporters are superimposed with a midi-track of the original songs the chants are based on. The chants that appear in this work are sung by non professional singers. Their voices have been recorded in informal studio settings, far from football stadiums. The audio work is the continuation of the homonymous video project that you can find here



recordings & mixing: Davide Tidoni
design: Davide Tidoni
silkscreen: Ilana Pichon
number of copies: 50
year: 2019
orders: write to baitabaita AT riseup DOT net

ULTRAS MASHUP



Ultras Mashup consists of a series of audio tracks in which football chants’ recordings are mixed with the “original” songs they are based on. The work reflects on the musical aspects of football supporters’ culture and supporters’ practice of creation through appropriation.

The work includes football supporters’ repurposed versions of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera theme Aida, Jewish traditional song from psalm 23 Gam Gam, Marcella Bella’s 1972 Sanremo Festival success Montagne Verdi, Walt Disney’s whistling theme from Robin Hood, northern italian folk song La Mula de Parensio, Coca-Cola jingle Buy the World a Coke, Dean Martin’s signature song That’s Amore, and Righeira’s 80’s summer hit L’Estate Sta Finendo.

The football chants used in the tracks have been recorded at the stadium and on away matches as part of my involvement with the ultras group Brescia 1911 (2001 – ongoing).

recordings & mixing: Davide Tidoni
design: Davide Tidoni & Marzia Dalfini
silkscreen: l’Appât
publisher: SARU Oxford Brookes University
number of copies: 200
year: 2018
orders: write to baitabaita AT riseup DOT net

TOUCH OF THE POPS



Audio release with text and graphics.
The work documents a series of directly experienced balloon pops.
Each pop was performed using a balloon and a location.
All locations were encountered separately by chance and chosen for their unique acoustic response.
The recordings presented in the book are intended to document the action of popping, its situatedness, immediacy, and physicality.



recordings & mixing: Davide Tidoni
design: Davide Tidoni
silkscreen: l’Appât
hand-binded leporello with folded cover: SongYi Han
pages: 16
dimensions: 110×150x6mm
publisher: Balloon&Needle
number of copies: 50
year: 2018
orders: write to baitabaita AT riseup DOT net

THE SOUND OF NORMALISATION



The Sound of Normalisation is a collection of audio recordings that documents the sound culture of the Ultras group BRESCIA 1911 in relation to modern football and the wave of repressive measures targeted at organized supporters groups. The recordings were taken over a period of 15 years and cover: 1) creation, uses and meanings of the chants 2) group principles and collective identity 3) audience participation and the process of social exclusion from the stadium 4) police repression and the political implications of the chants 5) the evolution of the drumming in relation to the drums ban-order of 2007. Each recording comes with a short introductory text and is presented as a video with subtitles. The work has been published in 2018 by SARU, Oxford Brookes University.

Since early 2000 I’ve been researching football supporter subculture, audience participation and crowd regulation. The overall research concerns the nexus of public space, social performance and surveillance in contemporary Italian football. — The aim of the research is to trace mechanisms of social interaction and aesthetic creation in football supporters’ subculture via an examination of the sound practices shared by the group Brescia 1911. Relations between sound production and space construction are investigated especially in the light of dynamics of social control adopted in football grounds in the last years. — The research contributes to a better understanding of sound’s function in group formation and collective identity as well as how sound performance and social repertoire evolve in relation to public security measures and space control.

In 2015, a first concrete materialization of the project has been exhibited at ARGOS, centre for art and media, Brussels. In 2018, the final version of the project has been presented at GET SOME CHALK ON YOUR BOOTS! an exhibition and conference organized by SARU at Oxford Brookes University.



audio recordings, videos, & texts: Davide Tidoni
design: Marzia Dalfini & Davide Tidoni
offset printing
binding: thread sewn, open spine binding with glued on boards
pages: 60
dimensions: 15×21x1cm
publisher: SARU Oxford Brookes University
number of copies: 300
year: 2018
orders: write to baitabaita AT riseup DOT net

EXAGGERATED FOOTSTEPS







design: Davide Tidoni
material: stainless steel
dimensions: 120×40x4mm
weight: 700 gr.
embossed printing: l’Appât
packaging: Tatsuya Inuikawa
number of copies: 50
year: 2018
orders: baitabaita AT riseup DOT net