Almost two months of solo travel, from Santiago de Chile to Buenos Aires, four thousand kilometres of climbs and descents across the Andes at the silent pace of the bicycle, amid breathtaking landscapes, music, effort, encounters and thoughts chasing the clouds in incredibly blue skies. And a GoPro, his only travel companion, to bear witness to Jovanotti's solitary journey to the end of the world. Sixty hours of footage, “which were meant for short clips on social media or on Youtube,” as our very own Jova tells it, and which instead took shape, a strange and unusual shape, and became a television project for RaiPlay. The programme will be called “Non voglio cambiare pianeta” (after a line from a poem by Pablo Neruda), available from 24 April, in sixteen episodes of around 15 minutes each. “It's hard to define exactly what it is... a docu-trip, a little psychedelic, mixing sport, music and travel but with something to say. A crack that lets you see infinite possibilities.” The artist adds these words: “For me it was a spiritual journey; on a bike you can cross places you would never go by car, you have so many small Epiphanies of wonder and inspiration.” When he returned, Jovanotti sent a photo to his long-time friend, the famous director Gabriele Muccino, and he replied: “Live as if you were 20,” but the artist counters that “it isn't like that: a journey like this at 53 has an even deeper meaning. The years of learning never end, you can learn until you are 90, until your last breath.” “I had mounted a camera on the handlebars; for me it had become like Wilson, Tom Hanks' ball in Cast Away,” Jovanotti recounts. “It was a happy journey, two months of happiness, I pedalled 10 to 12 hours a day, then in March, when I got back to Fiumicino, they pointed a thermometer at my face and I realised what was happening in Italy. This journey is a tutorial for phase two: because here is someone who keeps his distance but travels.” Travel, music and words. Jova's invitation to young people is: “read and travel. Watch films, listen to music, travel in every sense. Do not accept the truth the way it is handed to you.” Satisfaction at Rai over the collaboration with Jovanotti. From Santiago de Chile to Buenos Aires, through deserts, ocean coasts, national parks, the Andes, the Pampas, remote villages and the big city. For Lorenzo, “the road always has answers to our questions and the ability to fill my heart, and so I set off on this adventure aboard my bicycle.” Travelling, he adds, “is a great opportunity and it is the thing I miss most right now.” This documentary can serve as inspiration for Phase 2 of the reopening which, unfortunately, will not yet involve live music. “It will take time, but it disheartens me to think of a future made only of live performances on social media. Music is in the air between people, not in the air between the speakers and the PC. Music is considered something superfluous, but it is a necessary superfluous thing.”
