During the cohabitation art course, it soon became clear to me that I am a place-maker. I bring people together to be yourself with others. It is a way of life for me to involve everyone and shape society. I live, work and live right across society and I consciously seek out people outside my ‘bubble’ and fields of vision.
By explicitly inviting everyone to listen, speak and value each other's contribution. Open and transparent. With a willingness to change minds where the other person's social status does not matter.
I am.
I am not my job description.
I am not the amount of friends or followers I have.
I am not the clothes I wear.
I am not my religion.
I am not the colour of my skin.
I am not my parent.
I am not who I was as a child.
I am not my test score or performance.
I am not the words others use to describe me.
I am not even what I see in the mirror.
I am. And that is enough.
As a coexistence artist, I meet a huge diversity of people and thus of customs and cultures. I experience that dialogue, hearing each other see and speak in a safe environment, reconnects us. By listening and sharing from my own knowledge and experiences, I can get closer to the other. If I dare to show myself, the other will also be inclined to expose themselves. And that opens the circle of people to explore with each other who you are, what you can do and what you want. In addition, exchanging gives a picture of how the world around you works and you can put what you have to bring into the world. Knowing that you can fall back on people in the circle, whom you care about and who care about you.
Blikopener is an initiative I will be putting out into the world in the near future.
Being free, equal and together in everyday life requires staying connected, mutually supporting, surprising and inspiring each other. A collaboration and environment to play and experiment for a future society and economy was not there yet. To help and challenge each other to stay on track and take the next steps. And to stay close to the source, feed on that and also give back what you have learned. This is how we make the community, and the world, a little bit more liveable together.
These physical and online connections and meetings are only available to anyone who does or has done any training or education with Economy Transformers.
We start small and slowly and carefully crawl out of our shell. And for all those who are not yet there, there are our blogs, podcasts, meetings and, of course, our newsletter.
Pieter Hessel.
