The Suite (212) Sessions, no. 14 - Jeremy Deller

In the wake of the coronavirus epidemic and shutting down of much of the UK's cultural life, we have decided to bring you a series of interviews with contemporary artists, writers, filmmakers and other cultural figures, conducted via Skype (so apologies for the diminished audio quality), about their practices, the political issues that inspire them and the socio-economic conditions that have shaped their work. In the fourteenth of these Sessions, Juliet talks to English conceptual, video and installation artist Jeremy Deller, who was born in London in 1966. They discussed Deller’s documentary Everybody in the Place: An Incomplete History of Britain 1984-1992 (2019), commissioned by Frieze and shown on BBC Four; ideas around collective joy and acid communism, as well as young people’s access to culture and the music heritage industry; his film with Nick Abrahams about Depeche Mode fans; his Battle of Orgreave (2001), which recreated a pivotal confrontation during the miners’ strike of 1984-85, and helped Deller to win the Turner Prize in 2004; Deller’s poster campaigns for the 2017 General Election and in support of immigrants during the Covid-19 crisis; and what the culture and higher education sectors might look like in the wake of the pandemic. A full list of references for the programme, with links, can be found via our Patreon at www.patreon.com/suite212, and are available to $3 subscribers.