Deller picked for British pavilion at Venice Biennale

Bats could well figure, or boy scouts, or striking miners, bicycles and mugs of strong tea, and it would be surprising if a brass band didn\'t find its way in somehow. Jeremy Deller, described by one commentator as a \"pied piper of popular culture\", has been selected to fill one of the arts world\'s most prestigious shop windows, the British pavilion at next year\'s Venice Biennale. A maverick\'s maverick, Deller\'s star has been rising dramatically through the conventional arts world since, to the surprise of many, including the artist himself, he won the Turner prize in 2004. His crowd and critic-pleasing retrospective, Joy in the People, at the Hayward Gallery in London – which featured a recreation of his boyhood bedroom and a Lancashire cafe serving tea throughout the show – has just closed, and his lifesize bouncy castle Stonehenge, his contribution to the Cultural Olympiad, is on tour. \"I really don\'t know what I\'m going to do,\" Deller said rather anxiously. \"I was a bit daunted at first, but now I\'m looking forward to it, I think. I haven\'t even seen the pavilion empty, so that\'s probably the first thing to do.\" He promised meekly \"to do my best\". Born in London in 1966, Deller\'s first solo exhibition was held in his parents\' house: they were on holiday at the time, and only learned of it later. Much of his work has had a strong if eclectic political element, including his recreation of the 1984 Battle of Orgreave, one of the bloodiest clashes between striking miners and police, where his actors included many former miners. As well as film, installations and music, his shows often involve roping in outside groups and individuals as participants, including brass bands, bat enthusiasts and ham radio operators, partly because he cannot draw and has described himself as \"not technically capable person\". He hasn\'t yet worked out how to fill the pavilion in Venice. \"I have strong feelings about a number of things, but at the moment I\'m chiefly angry about the weather,\" he said. \"I got soaked cycling to the studio this morning, it would have been a much better day to stay at home reading a book.\" Chris Dercon, director of Tate Modern, a member of the Biennale selection panel, called him \"an exciting and daring choice\" for Venice. \"He is a master of an art which is very different from most contemporary art production. His observations and actions, invoking and depicting the harsh morals of contemporary life, are incredibly precise yet full of comical relief. Deller\'s art is representing British culture at its best: it is an art of the real – poignant and often confrontational – yet full of compassion and never dull.\" Andrea Rose, the director of visual arts at the British Council which organises the British representation at Venice, said: \"Wry, and very light on his feet, Deller has a great ability to draw together all sorts of people and communities and orchestrate them into unexpected patterns. He\'s a sort of pied piper of popular culture.\" At the British pavilion in the 55th Biennale, which will run from June to November 2013, he will be following slightly apprehensively in the footsteps of some of the biggest names in British art, such as Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud , Bridget Riley, Anthony Caro, Gilbert and George, and most recently Mike Nelson in 2011. The international critics who descend on the Biennale gardens can be adulatory or savage – Tracy Emin in 2007 got some memorably dire reviews, including from Richard Dorment in the Telegraph who wrote: \"The British Council has cruelly exposed Emin\'s limitations as an artist.\"