Jeremy Deller

Jeremy Deller is a British conceptual artist working with video, installations and print. Known for his collaborative approach, he engages communities in art and pushes boundaries. His work explores the interplay between culture, politics, and society, focusing on themes such as social justice, history, and collective experience.

Fascinated by British pop culture and music, Deller draws connections to social movements and political issues. His art critiques nationalism and power structures, yet with humor and playfulness. Beyond the gallery context, he turns everyday experiences into social commentary. At its core, his work is about people—how they shape culture, are influenced by history, and use creativity as a powerful tool for dialogue, resistance, and celebration.

At the invitation of RHIZOMA, Jeremy Deller created several new works.

Inspired by the concept of the Unknown Soldier or Warrior, Jeremy Deller’s The Tomb of the Unknown Refugee reimagines a contemporary equivalent of collective mourning and remembrance. The Unknown Warrior, an anonymous fallen soldier from World War I, was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey, his grave becoming a powerful symbol of shared grief. Mourners could project their own loss onto this unidentified figure, imagining him as a son, husband, brother. He stood in for all those lost to war, especially those whose bodies were never found. This act of remembrance transcended the individual, transforming into a meditation on anonymity, loss and the chaos of conflict.

Deller extends this idea to the present day, asking: who are today’s unknown dead? He found his answer in the countless refugees who have perished in the Mediterranean, in deserts and in other unforgiving landscapes – individuals who have died seeking a better life, often nameless and without identification.

Visitors were invited to take a print home, carrying with them a fragment of this quiet yet powerful act of remembrance.

Jeremy Deller’s Shared Reality is a striking billboard intervention located at the rear of the MASEREEL site, confronting the fragmentation of truth in contemporary society. The artist reflects on how social media, radicalization and misinformation fracture our collective understanding of reality, creating parallel worlds where dialogue becomes impossible. When individuals no longer share a common framework of truth, conversations break down – what one person perceives as fact, another dismisses entirely.

For Deller, a shared reality is essential for a functioning society. It is not just a term, but a fundamental truth about how people perceive the world and how they can become ideologically – and even physically – divided. Through propaganda and social media, individuals drift further apart, making common ground increasingly difficult to find.

With this billboard, Deller invites viewers to reflect on this phenomenon while simultaneously creating a moment of shared reality. If multiple people stand before the work at the same time, they momentarily share an experience – anchored in the same landscape, looking at the same message. In this way, the billboard is not just a statement but an activation, making the audience an integral part of the work and reinforcing the very idea it seeks to express.

Alongside the billboard installed on site, Deller produced a smaller screenprinted version in our studio. This edition is available in our bookshop.

The Tomb of the Unknown Refugee (a version for Belgium) (2025)
Poster edition
131 x 91 cm
Edition of 1000

Shared Reality (2025)
Billboard
244 x 488 cm