{"id":22510,"date":"2026-02-24T01:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/22510\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T01:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:02:07","slug":"at-its-core-great-art-exists-purely-for-its-own-sake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/22510\/","title":{"rendered":"At its core, great art exists purely for its own sake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Cave<\/a>\u00a0has written a passionate response\u00a0to Wim Wenders\u2019 comments on politics in art at the Berlin Film Festival.<\/p>\n

The veteran arthouse director Wenders, known for films including\u00a0Paris, Texas, Wings Of Desire and\u00a0Perfect Days,\u00a0was the Jury President at the Berlin International Film Festival this month and\u00a0was asked for his comments on whether films can trigger political change<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wenders said that he believes filmmakers \u201chave to stay out of politics because if we make movies that are dedicatedly political, we enter the field of politics. But we are the counterweight of politics, we are the opposite of politics. We have to do the work of people, not the work of politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Cave has responded to these remarks in an answer to a\u00a0fan\u00a0question on his\u00a0Red Hand Files<\/a>\u00a0blog. Explaining that he has known Wenders for over 40 years, Cave said his comments \u201dmoved me deeply\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt reaffirmed my understanding of him as a passionately principled, thoughtful, and courageous man \u2013\u00a0a person who cares profoundly about film and the state of the creative world,\u201d Cave continued. \u201cHis words were a caring, gentle, and protective gesture, directed not only at the artistic community but at humanity itself, and despite the predictable pile-on, I suspect that many artists,\u00a0maybe most, will genuinely appreciate his words.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to\u00a0speculate\u00a0that Wenders might have been \u201ctrying to save the Berlinale from succumbing to the fate of those festivals that have become little more than a narrowing of the cultural imagination\u201d,\u00a0criticising\u00a0many modern events for\u00a0having become subject to \u201ca single monolithic ideology \u2013 one voice, one cause, one dissent\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cave continued: \u201cI do not imagine for a moment that Wim thinks art should ignore the great and persistent injustices of the world. He seems to believe, as I do, that using art to raise awareness of these injustices can be extremely effective, but\u00a0perhaps he\u00a0also believes that art is more than the sum of its utility; it is more than a tool or a weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe he believes, as I do, that at its core, great art exists purely for its own sake \u2013 and that at its most transformative it reveals itself subtly, ambiguously, and curiously; that it is something we approach with awe and wonder, that humbles us whilst also enlarging our hearts, that works its way into our souls and spirits, guiding us towards what is good, beautiful, and true. Art captivates us and imparts a sense of what it means to be human, broadening our understanding of the world and our own place within it \u2013\u00a0that we have the right to love, laugh, cry, and be thrilled by the world. This is art\u2019s largesse \u2013 to remind us that life is worth living.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cave has often spoken about the intersection of politics and art. In 2023,\u00a0he told\u00a0NME\u00a0that he believes<\/a>\u00a0there is \u201csome correlation between transgressive and bad\u00a0behaviour\u00a0and good art\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no accident that the\u00a0really great\u00a0stuff is often made by the most problematic people,\u201d he added.\u00a0\u201cI\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0quite understand it, but\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0certainly no metric that says that virtuousness makes good art. If you start looking around for the good people who make good art, the conversation shuts down very quickly. All the great stuff\u00a0seems to be\u00a0made by people who are in some way, out of order in some way or another.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just value art and see that the need for it is too urgent to be fucking around and taking this stuff down.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0where my problem with the cancel culture business begins and ends.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0not some great fight\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0having with these people. I just worry about the world and we need as much good stuff as\u00a0possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cave also said last year that\u00a0he is \u201cneither on the left nor on the right\u201d<\/a>\u00a0as he finds both sides \u201cunrecognisable\u201d,\u00a0and he has also said that\u00a0listening to opposing ideas makes for a healthier society and can be used as a tool<\/a>\u00a0to \u201cliberate the soul of our world\u201d.<\/p>\n

He made a similar point in an interview with\u00a0The Guardian\u00a0in 2024, when\u00a0he criticised woke culture for its \u201clack of mercy\u201d and \u201clack of forgiveness\u201d<\/a>. In 2020, he\u00a0got in touch with\u00a0a fan to\u00a0explain why he has an aversion to bringing politics into his lyrics<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Cave\u00a0has written a passionate response\u00a0to Wim Wenders\u2019 comments on politics in art at the Berlin Film Festival.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[99],"tags":[15155,112,190],"class_list":["post-22510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-alternative","tag-berlin","tag-germany"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}