Jovanotti and Tiziano Ferro for Pio Manzu Conference

The Pio Manzu conference, held each year in Rimini, has announced some of the panellists for this year’s workshops, on the weighty theme of ‘Nomad Power – Values, Illusions, Aspirations of Errant Youth‘.

The conference this year has a particularly interesting line-up, given that amongst the collection of high profile sociologists, business leaders, politicians, scientists, heads of state, and Nobel Prize laureats that the conference has traditionally gathered together, there will also be a panel that brings together some of the biggest names in Italian music, including classical composer Giovanni Allevi, singer-songwriter and x-factor judge Morgan, Tiziano Ferro (whose records have been released in more than 41 countries), and Jovanotti.

Jovanotti, who has sold millions of records and is one of Italian music’s biggest exports, is also widely known for his activism – particularly in the campaign to cancel third-world debt.

Jovanotti will appear at this year's Pio Manzu Conference

Jovanotti, whose real name is Lorenzo Cherubini has a long history with Rimini – the start of his career involved continuous touring of the Riviera’s stages. As an acclaimed illustrator Jovanotti was invited, in 2005, to design the city’s summer season poster – a tradition that has involved artists like Rene Gruau, Milo Manara, and in 2009 the actor/artist Alessandro Bergonzoni . Responding positively to the invite Jovanotti said: “I’m honoured by this, and it’s something that makes me very happy. I hope to create something that the whole city likes and that shines a spotlight for those who come from outside. Rimini is a place that I love. I’m a huge fan of Fellini, I know all his films by memory, and I hungrily read up all that he wrote or said in interviews or designed with his markers [Fellini was also a cartoonist]”

Jovanotti and the rest of the panel will talk on Saturday 24th during the following afternoon panel

Timeless youth. Notes, colours, signs of conflict
In contemporary society, music and the figurative arts are probably the first forms of artistic expression that young people embrace, whether actively or passively. Unfortunately, the enormous commercial potential of certain artistic activities often overshadows the social, cultural and creative value of this phenomenon. There exists effectively an intense relationship between young people and the arts, and the idea of creativity plays a dominant role in this alliance. Generally speaking, people who are not creative and spiritually equipped sublimate this deficiency with a dense external existence: art may be regarded as one of the most important forms of education of the human spirit. Every fragment of art is a bridge suspended beyond the custom-houses of the ego, a renewed miracle of inwardness, which is narrated, a dramatic and at the same time exciting adventure of the soul that sends out signals from itself to the outside and to others. In a culture of façades such as ours today, art for art’s sake, not pinned to an ideal, may appear eccentric and ineffective. The young person who dedicates himself to art – whether musical or figurative, cartoons or theatre – may not be attractive to people affecting classical tastes (often the judgement of the man in the street may be stiff or hostile towards the manifestations typical of young people, regarded them as inopportune and meaningless). There can be no doubt that we find ourselves faced with a new language, which, owing to the fact that it meets with approval amongst all the world’s cultures, should not be stigmatised, but taken seriously, listened to, learnt and closely pondered. Analysis of youthful artistic expression is a sign of a cultural “nomadism” that is at the same time rich and lively. Never more than now at the dawn of this millennium has youthful culture, with the complicity of the World Wide Web, seemed so densely crossfertilised with global styles, values and tastes.

We’ll be bringing you more details on this important and innovative conference over the next two months.