Social Surrealism

Ever since completing his “Manchester Procession” (2009), British artist Jeremy Deller (born 1966) has described his practice as “Social Surrealism”: “It’s going back to the original idea of carnival and procession, inverting reality and changing reality if only for a day or a week...”.

For more than a decade, Deller has been at the forefront of a generation of artists who have reimagined the possibilities of public space, orchestrating real life scenarios to illuminate larger social realities. His best known work is the 2001 “Battle of Orgreave” project, for which he collaborated with re-enactment societies to recreate a 1984 confrontation between striking British miners and police. On September 15 2010, Robert Eikmeyer and Alistair Hudson met Deller in his flat in London to talk about his work. This audio CD documents their conversation. Language: English