The Dream of Europe is built around eight diverse stories. Each portrays a quite distinct motivation for being attracted to Europe, and the consequences connected with a particular version of the dream. The stories transport us between the dreams of a budding Norwegian model in Paris, football talents in Romania, of illegal immigrants from Morocco and their cultural clashes in Algeria, and via homosexuality in Turkey, marriage and social mobility in Cuba, Burmese quota refugees in Malaysia and finally to ‘African Idol’ in Zambia.

The exhibition portrays challenges and goals. It also shows how similar young people are, and at the same time how dissimilar their prospects for realising their dreams are. The exhibition encourages reflection on themes such as diversity, human rights, discrimination, gender, cultural understanding, migration policy and international law.

Rune Eraker works within a classical European documentary genre, at the borderline between documentary and art photography. For the past twenty years, he has travelled throughout troubled areas, primarily in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Eraker has worked as a photographer since 1981, has had solo exhibitions in Norway and abroad, and has published two books of photography.

The exhibition ends 6 September 2009. 

All photographs: Rune Eraker