A cantiga é uma arma (The song is a weapon)
Research und Workshop by Dusty Whistles
Dates to the workshop will be announced in December **
The project "A cantiga é uma arma" (The song is a weapon) explores the powerful role of protest music in political resistance, rooted in Portugal's revolutionary history and linked to the global struggle against fascism, imperialism and capitalism. Dusty reflects on the legacy of the armed decolonization and independence struggles in Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and territories in India, leading to the Carnation Revolution of 1974, which ended a decades-long fascist regime in Portugal. This work resonates with both her personal heritage and current global movements confronting contemporary neocolonial, imperialist, and fascist processes.
During the exhibition, Dusty will collect and archive protest chants from various political struggles in Vienna, building on her previous work with activists involved in emancipatory movements focused on anti-racism, gender and sexual liberation, disability justice, labor, migration, and environmental justice. These chants will be recorded and displayed, culminating in a polyphonic composition that represents the interdependence and interconnection of these diverse voices united in struggle. A choir, formed from activists, will rehearse this composition to carry on the practice of protest singing.
At a workshop in January, the choir will perform the song, teaching it to the public, who will then activate it during a political demonstration. The goal is to bring activists together outside typical protest settings, and to introduce new, creative forms of resistance. Dusty sees protest song as a weapon of collective power, capable of deepening solidarity, building fraternity, and highlighting the intersectionality of various struggles.
Dusty is a trans woman, who is racialized as white, with a body that is currently defined as “ablebodied”, and comes from a working class and transnational immigrant perspective. She was born on Matinecock territory in the colonial occupation called “New York”, and has recently immigrated to Austria, living in the city of Vienna. She is from a family of Portuguese artisans and unionized service sector workers, who fled the fascist regime of Portugal and whose paths of migration intersected Venezuela and settler colonial occupation called the “United States”. As an art worker her practice is centered in abolitionist and antifascist principals, with a focus on the culture of organizing and the art of mobilization within emancipatory movements. In her work she utilizes social practice methodologies, archival, care and hospitality practices, as well as drag performance, connecting to its legacy in supporting communal function, criminality, respite and resistance.
