Free your mind

It is an advantage for all parties that people have work if they are legally allowed to be in a country. Employing foreigners and being employed as a foreigner is also a great way to overcome suspicion and disbelief between cultures. But how can the barriers for employing a foreigner be overcome? Seeing possibilities is a good start.

In this exhibition I contrasted paintings inspired by drawings and buildings made by kids playing freely, with paintings of tragedies in the lives of people falling outside society and victims of extremist ideas.

For a couple of years I have observed the things my kids build with wood bricks. In the beginning I tried to teach them how to do it. Like making a door, having a roof and maybe some Greek columns. But that made them lose their interest in the bricks. So I let them build freely from their own fantasy. Then I saw  their liberated minds make creations more spectacular than I could imagine. Was this possible because their minds were not fixed in the set pattern my adult mind have?

I think yes. And I think the fixed mind sets of many employers too are causes to lost opportunities.

Two weeks prior to the exhibition I was able to put theory into practice by employing two Polish students for rehabilitation of the building where the Phoenix Bird Temporary Art Hall was. It was a great success.

The free your mind exhibition was part of the official Olavsfestdagene program in 2012.