Sexual Dissidences: Frau Diamandas Catalan Scenes, the Travesti Politics of Resistance, and Anti-canonical Knowledge (Sternberg Press / Publication Series of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna)

Travesti writers, voices, performers, artists, and historians present a collective narrative of survival.

Despite its long history, the unique Latin American phenomenon of sexual identity, travesti, has been largely overlooked in Western European discourse. Travesti brings to life systems of knowledge and the attitude of autonomy that occupies a distinct position within the clash of class, gender, and race. The development of long-term forms of ephemerality sheds light on processes of travesti anti-capitalist revolt, as well as the capacity of travesti to exploit and/or migrate themselves in order to make life possible and worth living, and the dynamics of practices and reflections to emerge anew. Despite the necropolitical grip on their lives, the swaying of travesti bodies is both witty and powerful. They themselves have taken detailed steps to find a way to exist and build communities.

Drawing together numerous writers, voices, performers, artists, and historians, this book is not merely about travesti, it is travesti.

Contributors
Pêdra Costa, Johan Mijail, R. Marcos Mota, Marina Gržinić and Jovita Pristovšek, Claudia Rodríguez, Juan Pablo Sutherland, Marlene Wayar, Gabriela Wiener, Sergio Zevallos 

Interviews With Frau Diamanda and Pêdra Costa, Diego Marchante, Diego Falconí Trávez, Iki Yos Piña Narváez And Francisco Godoy Vega

The second part of the book is a translation of Frau Diamanda/Héctor Acuña’s book Escenas Catalana. With Forewords by Diego Falconí Trávez and Hernán Migoya, and illustrations by Juan Carlos Cajigas “Juka”, César “Chechi” Chávez, Jesús García, and Rapha Hu.

Copublished by Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

Oke Fijal is a conceptual and multimedia artist based in Vienna. They are currently part of the Studio for Art and Intervention, Post-Conceptual Art Practices (PCAP, IBK) at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna; Marina Gržinić is a full professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, head of the Studio for Art and Intervention, Post-Conceptual Art Practices (PCAP, IBK); Sen Reyes is an interdisciplinary artist from Barcelona. They studied film until 2021 and has collaborated in various independent audiovisual productions. Their lines of work focus on the relationships between technology, fiction and identity, as well as their social and political context and history; Melina Vesely studied Fine Arts at the Bauhaus University Weimar and recently at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Her research in the fields of care, gender, relations, community and conviviality are realized in various collective projects, poems, print publications, textile practices, and audio works.