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THE BEST OF NO-TAV – songbook out now
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.
More about the No TAV struggle: see Transnational Institute and Undisciplined Environments.
DIECI CANTI NO-TAV / Ten NO-TAV songs
Here’s the essay I wrote about (some of) the songs from the No TAV struggle. The essay has been published on “Il de Martino” (issue 37-38, 2024), the journal of the Ernesto De Martino Institute. Note: essay available only in Italian. More about the No TAV struggle: see Transnational Institute and Undisciplined Environments.
OUTWARD FROM WITHIN, documentation images
OUTWARD FROM WITHIN
photo by Leonie Lomann & Davide Tidoni
This exhibition focuses on the intimate relationship between “inside” and “outside” as sound passes across and through adjacent spaces.
Developed as a site-specific work in an empty apartment, the exhibition features multiple installations which emphasize the acoustic relationships and ‘dialogues’ between different rooms, a balcony and a courtyard. There are microphones transmitting both environmental and contact sounds from one space into another; loudspeakers also play back recordings of slow-walks that have previously been performed in the space.
This work is intended to produce a sense of presence, communication, and interrelation, ideally resulting in a contemplative orientation towards the site. The otherwise vacant state of the apartment combined with the low playback volumes requires focus and attention, inviting viewers to linger and observe.
Only one person was allowed to view the exhibition at a time.
Click here to see more images from the exhibition.
LISBOA SOA, documentation images
photo by Vera Marmelo
FRAGMENTS FROM THE NO-TAV STRUGGLE – radio piece
HURLING INTO THE UNKNOWN
A microphone is suspended in mid-air from the top of a building. As winds blow, the microphone begins to swing and touches the wall from which it hangs.
DRIFTING
A loudspeaker oscillates at the mercy of the waves. When the waves touch the loudspeaker, they set it in motion and thus modulate the white noise that is being played back.
OBSTRUCTIONS
A loudspeaker diffusing white noise is installed on the side of a road. When a car drives on the road, it intersects the projection of white noise generating cuts in the propagation of sound.
COMING INTO BEING
photo by Michela Di Savino
The point of departure for this work is a series of listening exercises for exploring the relation between sound, space, and movement. After having presented the exercises as pedagogical tools for more than ten years as part of my workshop practice, I’ve decided to use them as source material for developing choreographed actions and performances.
Exploring the interdependence between touch and sound and the capacity of the body to filter and modulate the propagation of sound in space, the work reflects on the active role of the listener and on their agency to act upon and intervene within the acoustic field.
Video documentation (PSSWRD: “LAI2021″).
BISOGNA CANTA’ SEMPER / We Always Have To Sing
Here’s the essay I co-authored with Lorenzo Pedrini about the social logic behind the chants of Brescia 1911 football supporters. The essay has been published in the book “Le Strade della Teppa”, RedStar Press, 2022. Note: for now, the essay is available only in Italian.
UP IN THE VALLEY – documentation video
IGNITE
IGNITE
An incendiary mixture consumes the membrane of a loudspeaker, devouring its insides.
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.
RADICAL MURMUR
Here’s the interview I made for Radical Murmur, a podcast produced by TRASHLINIE in collaboration with rekto:verso, Gonzo (circus), and COLLATERAL.
WHEN SOUND ENDS – book format
TOWARDS A SOCIOLOGY OF ULTRAS’ CHANTING
Here’s an essay I co-authored with sociologist Lorenzo Pedrini summarizing the main findings of my field research project with the ultras group Brescia 1911. Note: for now, the essay is available only in Italian.
WE SPEAK THE AIR WE BREATHE – documentation video
who will guard the guards?
WHEN SOUND ENDS
This series of works explores themes of corporeality, in relation to sound production and audition, touch, and loss. The loudspeakers, microphones, enclosures, and membranes presented in this exhibition are in varying states of disrepair; most are no longer capable of producing sound and thus are poignant objects for meditation on impermanence, bodily frailty, and death. Each of these corpses bear visible marks of violence, traces of past collisions and other wounds which emphatetically encourage viewers to visualize this encounter and the consequential loss of capacity.
See more documentation about the overall project: whensoundends.davidetidoni.name/
ATTACK / DECAY – documentation video
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
NEW PUBLICATION OUT
WHEN SOUND ENDS – documentation images
ATTACK / DECAY
Attack/Decay is a night walk where participants are invited to explore the acoustics of specific locations by means of a custom built impulse generator device.
The acoustic qualities and the spatial features of the chosen locations serve as a point of departure for developing site related listening pieces.
Through direct experience, the walk introduces participants to primary acoustic principles and spatial listening, framed as a state of interference and interdependency with the propagation of sound in space.
Technical development by Airborne Instruments.
With the support of nadine – laboratory for contemporary arts and the VGC.
HIGH TIDE
photo by Katinka Meersy
A loudspeaker projecting white noise is slowly taken by the high tide. As the tide rises, the white noise gets modulated in relation to the movement of the water. As sound disappears, a feeling of separation and withdrawal fills the people witnessing the loss.
Video documentation (PSSWRD: “HT2020″)
WHEN SOUND ENDS – online archive
Here’s a new page showing documentation material from my actions with microphones and loudspeakers from 2015 until today.
ATTACK / DECAY – night walks
New series of night walks organised in collaboration with WAB. With the support of Nadine and the VGC. Technical development by Airborne Instruments.
NEIDERLANT OU NEIDERLANT
In this project, I asked non-native Dutch residents to sing karaoke interpretations of popular Dutch songs. The songs have also been transcribed by the singers according to the (arbitrary) phonetics of their native tongue, highlighting the difficulties in becoming familiar with the sounds of a new language.
NO-TAV PROTEST SONGS – radio broadcast
Here follows the upload of the radio broadcast I did together with Franziska Windisch about (some of) the NO-TAV protest songs. The conversation has been realised for radio in between spaces and is part of a current research concerning the history of the NO-TAV movement read through its songs. More about the No TAV struggle: see Transnational Institute and Undisciplined Environments.