Before I die I want to…

The Floriani Foundation and Lùbar invite you to Fabbrica del vapore to celebrate the launch of the Italian version of the project “Before I die I want to” on Thursday, May 26th. The project first started in America ten years ago and aims to increase awareness of people of all ages about the things that are truly important in life.

What do you want to do before you die? For me, I definitely want to: travel the world (without being scared of flying), surf in Hawaii, meet Bradley Cooper, have a family, go and live by the seaside, and most of all become a better person in small ways. Do I have to choose just one of those things? Okay, in that case, before I die I don’t want to have any regrets. Remorse is allowed: that comes from trying and from taking risks, but regrets, my dears, are horrible creatures.

So, thanks to the Floriani Foundation you too will be able to express your desires. Don’t expect the genie in the lamp to just grant them, but ready your best smiles for the most important snapshot of your life, taken with a polaroid. That’s right, because sometimes progressing forward means taking a look back, and there’s nothing more powerful when it comes to remembering a good thought or intention than an analogue photograph in a digital world. It’s a moment of your life, unaltered by filters, stamped forever on a piece of paper. All of you, your thoughts and your hopes, here in Milan, to create a unique painting that’s part of a bigger puzzle: that of all the countries in the world.

And then what? We will get in touch with you again, after months and years, to find out if you have succeeded in taking your life into your own hands and achieving your own biggest desires for yourself. The photographs taken all over the world (the project has already been carried out in America, India, Venezuela and Japan), with your hopes written above, will be collected in a book with a cover by a famous photographer whose name we won’t tell you. A team of renowned experts will analyse and consider the social differences between countries, age groups, sexes, professions and religions. Next autumn, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Floriani Foundation and the 10th anniversary of this project there will be an exhibition which will be accompanied by the release of the book.

This photographic project, born out of an idea from two photographers from New York, simply consists of asking people of all ages momentous questions with the aim of “pushing them to think about and act on that which is truly important in life while trying to get away from taboos and the very real barrier to thinking about death, and looking at the true objectives of human existence”. For a body such as the Floriani Foundation, increasing public awareness about these issues means giving aid to the terminally ill, spreading and carrying out palliative treatment.

So, give it a thought… and “Live every day as if it was just one day. Not the first and not the last. The only one.” (Pablo Neruda). See you on Thursday!