Meet Andreas Thorell
Please introduce yourself
My name is Andreas Thorell, I live in Stockholm with my wife. I freelance as a culture entrepreneur and producer in the culture sector, for the moment mostly in the performing arts. I’m also doing a master’s in Philosophy at Södertörn University.
Life is lived at quite a high pace at the moment. Last week there was a premiere on a theater/dance performance that I have produced at Kulturhuset Stadsteatern in Stockholm. Before that I visited friends in Bergen, Norway, and the last few days I have been in Copenhagen.
When I’m not moving around I love to cook food, invite for parties, read and write.
Which team and when did you graduate?
I was a part of team 23 and graduated in 2019.
What have you been doing since you graduated as a Kaospilot?
Other than getting married and living in different places I have for the last five years been running the culture and music festival Trevarefest up in Lofoten, Norway together with a fellow Kaospilot and friend, Erlend Klette. Aside from that I have started up my own production company and created/taken on projects such as: organized philosophical salons at ARoS (which was also my final project at KP), create a Covid friendly art exhibition in the public space, produced a dance performances, project managed a collaboration between the performing arts and academia and facilitated several workshops. Other than work I have been a board member of a music festival in Stockholm called Popaganda, as well as read literature studies and finished a bachelor in Philosophy at Umeå University.
What is important for you in your job?
I evaluate each job based on a few criteria, these are: meaning/joy, future benefits and income. If you’re lucky enough you get to do projects where all these three criterias collide. It’s also important for me to be able to choose how and when I work, this is one of the reasons why I freelance. This freedom makes it possible for me to for example study or engage in other meaningful activities at the same time as I work.
…decisions are often much more clear than your head tells you. Therefore, step back and listen, often the answer is right there
What major learnings would you point out from your experience that have shaped you as a leader?
I have learned the importance of having a broad network, to be social and take care of relationships. Few things happen in a vacuum, it’s when you meet other people that new possibilities and ideas start to grow.
It’s a cliché, but most things (if not to say everything), works out in the end, something I learned through the pandemic. Few things are so complex that you can’t do anything about it and if it would be so, you can always manage how you yourself react and handle it.
Other than that, trust your gut. It might be hard but I have come to notice that, when in a crossroad, decisions are often much more clear than your head tells you. Therefore, step back and listen, often the answer is right there.
What is your biggest source for inspiration right now?
Reading books is and has been for the last years without doubt the biggest source of inspiration for me. For the last months i’ve been stuck on reading Plato and other ancient thinkers such as Heraclitus as well as the early vedic scripture Upanishads. I have also been moved by Simone Weil’s Gravity and Grace as well as Knausgårds latest book Det tredje riket.
I could also say my wife Rebecka who works as a dancer. Conversing with her about bodiliness, what it means to move and be in the world gives new perspectives on being.
What would be an example of a learning or an experience from your time at Kaospilot that has been important to you?
To learn how to cope and handle situations with lots of unstable variables. Like taking on crazy projects that you might have a hard time understanding how to realize, but that, in the end, always work out in some way or another. This thing of learning how to work on
something while the future is uncertain is a huge benefit in my field of work, and actually life in general.
What is a piece of advice that you would like to give future Kaospilot graduates?
Immerse yourself in some specific area to gain some deeper knowledge.
What’s fantastic at Kaospilot is that you learn a lot of things in many areas, in this way you become a generalist, you apply your knowledge in practically any field, and this is needed today. With that said, deepening your understanding in a particular field opens up so many doors, and is important if you want to be a good leader