WANTED is an exhibition that both presents the work with the film You’ll Never Be Hired Like That, and which, through works and scenography, points to the western genre as a strange fantasy and the idea of ​​“freedom” as a mirage.

You’ll Never Be Hired Like That is created in collaboration with Virgil Bendixen, Ragnhild Bjorholm, Anna Colstrup, Maria Egsgaard, Morten Fjordhauge, Maj Færgeman, Wilma Glatzl, Ida-Matilde Karla Greve- Nielsen, Karla Harder, Gina Hasli, Katrine Heide, Lisbeth Hermansen, Anya Khlobas, Emilie Palm, Marie Pastré, Christina Skøtt Juul, Aske Vanggaard, Malte Wilken and Victor Wuisman.

The script for You’ll Never Be Hired Like That is based on an edited version of the English subtitles from Akira Kurosawa’s film Yojimbo. Here, a wandering rōnin (stray samurai/freelancer) arrives in a windswept village torn apart by two rival gangs in their battle for goods and money. The law enforcement is either corrupt or a laughing stock, and the samurai plays the two gangs against each other by alternately offering himself as a mercenary for one and the other gang leader. With the samurai’s help, the gangs slaughter each other and the city is liberated and can now be rebuilt from scratch.

In You’ll Never Be Hired Like That, the drama is transferred to a small town in West Jutland, which visual artist Lisbeth Hermansen has renamed Country Town. Over 4 days in October 2022, students from Krabbesholm Højskole and Fyns Laboratorie for Ung Kunst gathered in Country Town to discuss the script, cook, develop the characters and film the scenes for what has become You’ll Never Be Hired Like That – a collective experiment that examines the myth of the freelancer, freedom and community in a – perhaps – post-state, windswept landscape in West Jutland.

Because how can the concept of freedom be understood differently, if not as something we take from each other? You’ll Never Be Hired Like That is a film that, in its making, questions our notions of freedom. Freedom from the bonds of community, freedom from others, freedom to do as you like, or freedom as something we create together.

The exhibition and the film are supported by:

Country Town

Fyns Laboratorie for Ung Kunst

Krabbesholm Højskole

Statens Kunstfond

Kulturregion Fyn

Kulturelt Samråd Lemvig