From Jacopo Bononi-Franco Semeraro
I believe praying is a reasonable, intimate and social act. Of cosmic significance. / I believe prayer pure, life-giving strength and the time to pray an eternal time. / I’m getting old 1953/2022 the body doesn’t lie, / obliges attention and care, the spirit still rips / unrealistic prey to enthusiasms that are then unsustainable. / I tend towards the wild, / solitary, in the shade of a house / venerable abode, in harmony with / the changing of the seasons, sensitive to the / animal presence / visible and invisible things / attentive to what happens: an increasingly / rapid change. I no longer have any / interest in the story that the world / has been making of itself between emptiness and gain for a / little time. / I’m residual, waiting for I don’t know what. / I made the last triad mine / Pasolini poet / defend, keep, pray (…) This is how Giovanni Lindo Ferretti talks about his latest volume ‘Óra defend, keep pray’, published by the types of the Aliberti Editorial Company in 2022. Ferretti represents a ‘unique’ on the Italian cultural scene: singer, author and writer, among other things he has published some books, of considerable success and which have aroused much curiosity, for Mondadori: ‘Reduce’, ‘Bella gente d’appenino’, ‘Barbarico’ and ‘Non invano’ starting from the end of the first decade of the millennium until last year. The books he has published are in addition to several essays related directly to his experience as a singer and as the author of all the verses of both CCCP and CSI and PGR songs and then as a soloist in recent years. He was also an actor in several films including Franco Battiato’s ‘Perdutoamor’ with whom he shared some musical projects. Ferretti’s value in the cultural field is multifaceted: he represents a pillar in the Italian twentieth-century punk and post-punk culture. We read in the biographical details of him: (…) between 2012 and 2016 Giovanni Lindo Ferretti collaborates with the musical formation of Stenopeica, which for years has been moving in musical experimentation research, combining the knowledge of the musical heritage of Asia with the creation of ethnic and contemporary music. From this collaboration, in which Franco Battiato and Teresa De Sio also participate, in 2012, two CDs are born: Kathmandu: eclipse of the two moons and Kathmandu: Disiecta membra. In 2016 Ferretti artistically participates in the creation of a literary and musical work (book with CD), again created by the Italian formation of Stenopeica: Kathmandu: diary from Kali Yuga. The creation of this work also sees the participation of Franco Battiato and Teresa De Sio. Still on the side of the dissemination of Asian culture and spirituality, Ferretti also participates in the making of a short film in Super-8 film by Martino Nicoletti (I don’t have to look into your eyes, music by Roberto Passuti), dedicated to the ethnic tourism of the so-called Women Giraffe of Thailand and contained in the volume: ‘Giraffe women’s zoo: a journey among the Kayans of northern Thailand’. In 2022 Ferretti also collaborates in the creation of a second work dedicated to this same theme and entitled ‘I don’t have to look you in the eye’. (…) So a commitment that goes beyond music and literature to be increasingly linked to the cultural expressions of the world. We read about his latest volume on Adnkronos: (…) As the title suggests, ‘Óra’ is a prayer book, containing events and thoughts settled around this, in the different ages of the author’s life. Giovanni Lindo Ferretti also wonders about how much prayer there is in singing about him, listening to the records recorded over forty years: “Many surprises. Shaking. Enchantments”. Times change, but the man who prays asking for help, consolation has remained the same. A book to rediscover, as Ferretti himself says, prayer as an intimate and social act, of cosmic value and pure strength. (…)
His figure as a man of culture has often been the object of criticism and speculation: first linked to the culture of the extreme left, then the author of both a political and religious conversion which led him to the area of the political right until he became a fervent supporter of the more conservative Catholic Creed. Certainly his personal and cultural journey has been as complex and original as his writings and his production as an author of musical texts. We will recall here the famous ‘Madre’ written and sung with the ‘CCCP Fedeli alla linea’: ‘Mother of God / and of her children / mother of fathers and mothers / mother,… oh mother, my mother / my soul turns to you.’ A text that is in itself a prayer well in conflict, so to speak, with the period and the ‘humus’ of the punk culture of the Italian eighties, a period in which it was written and disseminated. In short, a very original figure who cuts out for our award a space of further connection with the contemporary world: with the choice of Ferretti as the fourth finalist of our award, we aim to establish its roots in Italian culture in all its most significant expressions. The La Tore Elba Literary Prize is promoted by Franco and Lucia SemerarofromBlue Seagull Hotel and from Literary Café & Bookshop The Blue Seagullas well as sponsored by Municipality of Marciana Marina with the participation of Pro-Loco marinese and also this year sees the sponsorship of Elba water who will purchase the prize painting. She will lead the evening as usual Dr Lucia Soppelsa with the prof. Angelo Filippo Rampini and there will be the usual tribute from Dr. Marcellus Bruschettipresident of Enoglam EVO.
Giovanni Lindo Ferretti fourth finalist of the La Tore Prize 2023. – Tirreno Elba News