“When the Royal Danish Library contacted me with the idea of a “Nick Cave Exhibition” I was reluctant to get involved. It is a tangible, physical narrative, in which the space and exhibition design become an extension of the many stories contained within Cave’s life and writings. Stranger Than Kindness has been designed in collaboration with Nick Cave to create a series of immersive installations which allow visitors to inhabit the thoughts and creative process of an artist.

The exhibition reveals how Nick Cave’s life, music, archives and fictions continue to intertwine, inform and inspire each other. Central is the ever-evolving collaboration in Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, from the band’s inception in Cave’s most obsessive period in Berlin, up to their latest release Ghosteen (2019), widely acknowledged as their best work ever. Stranger Than Kindness covers the journey from Cave’s childhood in 1960s Wangaratta, Australia, through the chaotic years with his first bands, The Boys Next Door and The Birthday Party, and his relocation to Berlin and then London. Behind each work is an equally fascinating artistic process not originally intended for public view the exhibition opens up the innermost parts of Cave’s creative universe and offers a story of its own. Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition invites visitors to follow Cave’s development as an artist – and to gain insight into the overarching themes of his work, his working methods and the many sources of inspiration underpinning it all. Nick Cave’s body of work encompasses a wide range of media and modes of expression, with narrative forms at its heart. Created for The Black Diamond of The Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen, and with Cave as a co-curator and co-designer, the exhibition is an unorthodox fusion of biography, autobiography and fiction, asking what shapes our lives and makes us who we are. With more than 300 objects collected or created by Nick Cave through six decades of his creative and private life brought together in large-scale installations, the exhibition is an artwork in itself. Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition is an unprecedented look into the creative world of musician, storyteller and cultural icon Nick Cave. Watch the trailer of the exhibition HERE.

The exhibition was met with acclaim from press and visitors alike when it opened in Copenhagen in March 2020. There are currently no plans for the exhibition to travel to the USA. This is the North American premiere of the exhibition, which was previously presented at The Black Diamond, Copenhagen, Denmark. Tickets will go on sale this Friday, March 4 at 10 am via evenko.ca Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition opens Friday, April 8 at the Galerie de la Maison du Festival.

Stranger than kindness song