Art Is Magic: a children's book for adults by

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Curators: Étienne Bernard Director of Frac Bretagne, Jean-Roch Bouiller Director of Rennes Museum of Art, Sophie Kaplan Director of La Criée Centre of Contemporary Art, Claire Lignereux Head of modern and contemporary art at Rennes Museum of Art and Exporama coordinator. What would you be doing if you weren’t making art? The classic response from people in music is ‘I’d be in prison’, and I wouldn’t be in prison – I’m too scared to be in prison. I would be around art but I’m not sure how, I wouldn’t be in it but I’d be around it. The exhibition at Frac Bretagne presents Deller as the great observer of vernacular culture in the United

When he talks about his work, Deller often draws parallels between recent events and moments from history or mythology. He describes the rural acid-house raves of the late 80s, which he explored in his film Everybody in the Place, as “Dionysian and Bacchic”. When I ask him to elaborate, he says: “Though no one was thinking of it in these terms at the time, there was definitely a mythical, epic quality to the rave scene: the quest to find the rave, to move towards the light in the countryside, and to find a transcendent release through the experience. There was a folk element, too, insofar as raves were communal, grassroots events that involved rituals and strange modes of dress.” Although I didn’t see the work in person, I watched a bit online and spent the day in the knowledge that an odd and foolhardy event was taking place simultaneously on the other side of the world. The detritus has since been melted down and recycled. Just saying ​ ‘rage’ and ​ ‘rave’, they’re two very similar words. Rave came out of ahorrible moment in history for young people, but it was avery necessary moment. As were the drugs, really – it was necessary drugs that made many people like each other.” For access to the Queen Elizabeth Hall auditorium seating rows A to C and wheelchair spaces in the Front Stalls, please enter via the Artists' Entrance in the Queen Elizabeth Hall Slip Road (Level 1). Art is Magic exhibition is a city-wide co-production that takes place in the spaces of Frac Bretagne, La Criée Centre d’art contemporain and the Musée des beaux-arts de Rennes.

Date and time

For step-free access from the Queen Elizabeth Hall Slip Road off Belvedere Road to the Queen Elizabeth Hall auditorium seating (excluding rows A to C) and wheelchair spaces in the Rear Stalls, plus Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer and the Purcell Room, please use the Queen Elizabeth Hall main entrance. There’s asection in Jeremy Deller’s new book in which his editor asks him, quite bluntly: ​ “Why do you do this?”

I put myself and other people who were doing that at great personal risk. I mean, how would you know what the reaction would be to that in the Deep South? On the first day we started, we were in a campervan, towing the car, and the American soldier and the Iraqi civilian – both of whom had been in life threatening situations – looked really nervous. And I thought, ‘If you’re worried, then I should be really worried because you’ve been in war situations.’ But actually, on the whole, it was amazing to meet Americans face to face, without any of the fluff or hype around it, and just chat to them.”What’s the best thing about collaborating with the public? You don’t really know what to expect and what's going to happen, and also they make things better. Art Is Magic features work from across Deller’s life and art – much of it never seen before – alongside images which have inspired him. Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? When things have gone wrong, it’s tended to be in the art gallery rather than the public domain. In 2000, he and Alan Kane started building up a collection of British folk art – everything from trade-union banners to parade costumes, to a mechanical elephant, to a model of the Coronation Street set. It was exhibited at the Barbican in London, and the critical reaction was horrendous. “I’ve never had such vitriol. It’s horrible what people said about the work and the people who made it. And me, of course. One critic said: ‘I can’t believe I’ve been asked to review this show. It’s literally rubbish.’”

What’s the greatest compliment you’ve ever received? I try to not think about compliments, I find them difficult to receive. And what makes Art is Magic ‘a children’s book for adults’ (as per the subtitle inside)? It’s basically a book that explains things I’ve been up to. It’s quite playful and it’s full of pictures. I think it’s pushing the envelope of what is acceptable to be called art and what are its limits, if there are any. What exists on the fringes is always interesting to me. So, things like [re-enacting The Battle of] Orgreave or taking the car destroyed by a bomb in Iraq around America are pushing the limits of what can be considered a work or a project or a performance. Are there limits? Where is the outer ring? And how can we go there? It was from these thoughts that Sacrilege, a life-sized inflatable model of Stonehenge, was created. I was trying to think what the stupidest idea that was possible to make would be, the sort of thing you might see on The Simpsons. It was made more or less by hand in Grantham by a company called Inflatable World Leisure. The inflatable stones were all individually painted.You could be talking to awoman whose son was killed the previous month,” he continues of his research process, ​ “and you wouldn’t know that until they told you. But it was an amazing achievement for me personally. Sometimes you have to take the risk.” What was the last physical album you bought? I bought a lot in a charity shop recently, and one was a Sigur Rós album that I’d never heard of before. It’s good for driving. What was the most surprising thing about winning the Turner Prize in 2004? The most immediate thing is you get invited to things you wouldn’t have been invited to before, it literally just happens overnight. Which of course is the exact moment that you don’t want to go to them.