Sexual Dissidences

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

• Editors Introduction: Travesti Futures, Oke Fijal, Marina Gržinić, Sen Reyes, Melina Vesely
• Hyperbolic Exaggeration, Performativity, Sex: Frau Diamanda and Pêdra Costa on Their Work, Strategies and Stories, Frau Diamanda and Pêdra Costa
• Latin American Travesti Theory: A Personal Approach, Marlene Wayar
• Interview with Iki Yos Piña Narváez and Francisco Godoy Vega, Iki Yos Piña Narváez and Francisco Godoy Vega
• Catalan Scenes, Anthropological Sexual Wanderings: Micropolitics of the Travesti Rambling, Juan Pablo Sutherland
• Fraudian Scenes, Gabriela Wiener
• Interview with Diego Falconí Trávez, Diego Falconí Trávez
• Her Life in Photos, R. Marcos Mota
• Interview with Diego Marchante, Diego Marchante
• Maroon Fragment of Promiscuous Writing, Johan Mijail
• The Private Puberty, Sergio Zevallos
• Who Is Going to Love You?, Claudia Rodríguez
• Drawings: Bodiex/Sex/Transgressionx/Migrantx, Iki Yos Piña Narváez
• Mapping Travesti Knowledges, Marina Gržinić and Jovita Pristovšek
• Contributors
• Editors’ Biographies
• Acknowledgments

PART 2: CATALAN SCENES

• anthropological-sexual wanderings, Frau Diamanda/Héctor Acuña
• FOREWORD I: When The Travesti Writer Allows Writing To Be Travesti-Rated, Diego Falconí Trávez
• FOREWORD II: Back To The Flesh, Hernán Migoya
• INTRODUCTION
• Catalan Scene 1, Illustrated by Jesús García
• Catalan Scene 2, Illustrated by Jesús García
• Catalan Scene 3, Illustrated by Juka
• Catalan Scene 4, Illustrated by Jesús García
• Catalan Scene 5, Illustrated by Juka
• Catalan Scene 6, Illustrated by Rapha Hu
• Catalan Scene 7, Illustrated by Juka
• Catalan Scene 8, Illustrated by Rapha Hu
• Catalan Scene 9, Illustrated by Jesús García
• Catalan Scene 10, Illustrated by Juka
• Catalan Scene 11, Illustrated by Rapha Hu
• Catalan Scene 12, Illustrated by Juka
• Catalan Scene 13, Illustrated by Jesús García
• Catalan Scene 14, Illustrated by Rapha Hu
• Catalan Scene 15, Illustrated by Rapha Hu
• Catalan Scene 16, Illustrated by Jesús García
• Catalan Scene 17, Illustrated by Juka
• Catalan Scene 18, Illustrated by Jesús García
• Catalan Scene 19, Illustrated by Juka
• Catalan Scene 20, Illustrated by Rapha Hu
• Catalan Scene 21, Illustrated by Juka
• Catalan Scene 22, Illustrated by Rapha Hu
• Catalan Scene 23, Illustrated by Jesús García
• Catalan Scene 24, Illustrated by César Chávez
• Catalan Scene 25, Illustrated by César Chávez
• Bonus Track

"Frau Diamanda chronicles transnational migrant transits of nonbinary desire. Catalan Scenes lingers on orgiastic imaginaries and sexual soundscapes. This good-looking book expands the repertoire of Latin American travesti theory. A must read."
—Giancarlo Cornejo, Assistant Professor, Department of Gender Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles

"With drawings and stories, Catalan Scenes tells us of the beautiful strength of migrant steps, the ravishing forcefulness of travesti steps, which despite conservatism and repression have managed to take over and subvert the public spaces of demure Catalonia."
—Daniela Ortiz, artist

"It transports you to the cruising zones of Barcelona! There, Frau Diamanda is the mistress, owner, and sovereign of her desire. She delivers a powerful anti-racist critique while sharing her experiences in the Catalan scene."
—Lucas Platero Méndez, Associate Professor, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, MadridOke 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.