Do you think artists have a responsibility to speak up?

“Yes. Artists must live with reality, the real reality, and not The Consensus. Otherwise you cannot be a true artist. You don’t need to be extremist in order to speak up, no need to live in a cave without electricity in order to arrest environment exploiting business. Artist mustn’t be so be afraid of being banal or inconsistent. After all, that’s why we have the arts, to give the society some new ideas.”

Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, Norwegian musician.
Interviewed by Lasse Marhaug, April 2012. Published in Personal Best #2 in August 2012 http://climatesafety.info/?p=2648