keyword - protest songs

THE BEST OF NO-TAV

2024



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.

keywords   
artist's publications audio-based works info

DIECI CANTI NO-TAV / Ten NO-TAV songs

2023

Here’s the essay I wrote about (some of) the songs from the No TAV struggle. The essay has been published independently and is included as an extra insert in the songbook The Best of NO-TAV. Note: for now, the essay is available only in Italian.

keywords   
info texts

CANTA CHE NON PASSA

2018



DOWNLOAD THE LYRICS OF THE CHANTS.

The work documents part of the repertoire of the informal choir Canta che non passa (Our Singing Will Stop It). The choir is a spontaneous group of middle aged/elderly people active in the NO TAV* movement in Valsusa, northern Italy. The choir’s repertoire consists mainly of protest songs adapted from preexisting musical sources, with new lyrics created from scratch.

I recorded the choir during one of their meetings. Rather than placing the microphone on a stand, at some distance from the group and capturing the collective dimension of the voices, I chose to move within the choir and point the microphone at the individual voices of the participants. This strategy allowed me to emphasize the imperfect nature of the choir and place emphasis on the singular/plural dimension of the group as well as the uncertain beauty of non-professional voices.

* The NO TAV movement is an Italian grass root struggle that, since the early 2000s, has opposed the construction of the second high-speed train line between Turin and Lyon. More info: brief history of the no tav movement and notav.info.

keywords   
audio-based works info