“I don’t make things, I make things happen!”

Jeremy Deller is an Artist made famous by his historic Turner Prize win in 2004. Since then he has established himself at the vanguard of British Art, whilst maintaining a fresh, original and exciting attitude towards the industry and the production of his various projects. Collaboration and participation are central to Deller’s work. As he explains “a good collaboration is like going on a long journey without a map, never knowing quite where you will end up”. In his current exhibition at the Parasol Unit he has once again called upon the viewer and various participants to see Art as the event and not the document. Here we are shown a contrast between two very different types of videos, both of which follow parades; one has national and mournful undertones and the other is a celebration of diversity.

Photograph by Hainsley Brown & Deller's The History of the World 1997-2004

‘Veteran’s Day Parade, The End of the Empire’ 2002 is a documentary film surrounded by untitled stills of the event. The film follows a parade of carnival floats made up of local industries and organisations. Set in the southern United States, the event is inherently nationalistic and so, for a non-patriot, becomes rather trite and arduous. There is a sense of sorrow and tragedy that besets the film, exacerbated by the presence of local police and ambulance vehicles as part of the procession. The environment is a lonely expanse of desert which, despite the assumed appearance of a celebration, creates a feeling of desolation and even sorrow.

Throughout the film Deller is present as a commentator of sorts, chuckling as a group of motor bikes weave across the road in front of the camera. A float passes with a group of children on board singing “We are Christians by our love”, then more children, this time with expressions of extreme boredom waving Mexican flags. Whilst the event works at unifying, one can’t help but notice the isolation of one float from the next. The random procession of school, motor bike, Christian, cop, Mexican in an ongoing ramble across the dusty desert street creates a feeling of segregation and unison by force as opposed to a genuine melting pot of cultures and ideas. As a film, this is a standard document of an event that plays perfectly with Deller’s concepts in that anyone could be filming. It is the event that is interesting, the event is a form of art in its own right and the film is merely the document. This idea follows into his second video offering.

Veterans Day Parade, 2002 Video installation, Art: Concept, Paris & The Bats, Still from Memory Bucket, 2003

‘A Social Parade’ 2004 is a parade organised by Deller in San Sebastian that comprises different social and cultural groups filmed by a local children’s video club. In this instance we are never quite sure how much influence Deller has had over the children’s work. We follow several child interviewers around who proceed to ask the general public, organisers and participants about the event entitled ‘Manifesta’. When asked “Do you like this type of Art?” a local woman hesitates before answering “I prefer the traditional kind of art”, which at least suggests she sees the ‘happening’ as art. The parade, in contrast to the previous film, has a true carnival feel and is made up of mainly fringe social groups put together by Deller especially for this parade. ‘The Roma Jazz Lovers Band’, ‘AIDS Activists’, ‘The Martial Arts Society’, ‘The Mute Association’, ‘The Painter’s Society’ and the ‘The Children’s Rights Charity’ are just a few of the groups that march together to celebrate unity through minority.

As ever, Jeremy Deller has drawn attention to types of culture on the fringes of the mainstream and revealed a series of hidden histories whilst asking us to accept a celebration, a parade, a gathering as a piece of Art. Put in the words of a ‘Manifesta’ onlooker “What is art and what is not art is sometimes not important”.

Have you missed the first part? Continue to read Part One of Art: The Document of an Idea – Luke Fowler.

Parades and Processions is an ongoing group show at Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art finishing on July 24th that includes a mixture of work form 11 artists, particularly impressive are the works of Rachel Hovnanian and Amy O’Neill.