The Triumph Of Art: Jeremy Deller commission for Bicentenary comes to Trafalgar Square

Join Jeremy and friends on Saturday 26 July for a party in Trafalgar Square - the first of its kind and everyone's invited!

To round off the National Gallery’s Bicentenary celebrations, Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller has been celebrating with festivals, gatherings, and art in the public realm, in a brand-new UK-wide work, the largest of its kind to take place to date.

The commission will culminate in a day-long spectacular in Trafalgar Square on Saturday 26 July 2025 from 11am - 4pm.

Starting with a procession along Whitehall that you can follow, everyone can then join Jeremy Deller and a cast of artists, friends, performers and musicians in Trafalgar Square to dance, play, make, drink tea, eat cake, see performances and meet some artistic characters that you might recognise from the National Gallery Collection… and some you might not. 

Major moments and projects, involving hundreds of participants, have been happening across Northern Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland this spring all of which will come together on 26 July.

For The Triumph of Art, The Box in Plymouth, Mostyn in Llandudno, The Playhouse in Derry/Londonderry and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee have partnered with the National Gallery to deliver a series of events across the UK. These organisations mark a significant expansion in the National Gallery’s partnership strategy, including for the first time a performing arts venue in The Playhouse, and the first formal partnership with an art school (or college) in Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, part of the University of Dundee.  The Triumph of Art culminates in London, bringing elements from all these together. 

Hundreds of participants from across the UK, as well as others from across London, will bring together banners, pavilions, performances, tea and cake, music, and more in a parade and celebration in London’s most iconic square.  

The colourful day will also feature brass bands, rave and folk dancing, craft workshops, inflatables, and weight lifters. Families are welcome and there will be plenty space for feeding babies, and space for little ones to see the show.

Collaborators can be revealed and include:

●   Armagh Rhymers

●   Band Pres Llareggub

●   The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

●   Boss Morris

●   Canolfan Technoleg Amgen / Centre for Alternative Technology

●   Celtronic

●   Commando Temple

●   Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design students

●   Ed Hall

●   Emergency Exit Arts

●   Frân Wen

●   Glow Inflatables

●   Heart n Soul

●   kennardphillipps

●   London Contemporary Dance School

●   Melodian Steel Orchestra

●   The Power Building Gym

●   William Morris Gallery

'Over two years Jeremy Deller has explored ancient mythologies, local folklore and motivations to gather, from across the UK and from the National Gallery’s collection to create an event that is joyful, surreal and hopefully like nothing else that has come before. The Triumph of Art is a celebration of creativity, making and impressive bodies – a blend of the ancient and the contemporary - which can only be truly experienced live, eventually becoming its own mythology in the stories, images and memories of those who were present. The project is really the first of its kind in the UK and we can’t wait for everyone to join in' said National Gallery curator Emily Stone. 

Jeremy Deller said, 'I’m looking forward to working with partners across all four nations to create something epic to mark the Gallery’s 200 years.' 

Notes to editors

Jeremy Deller (b. 1966, London) studied History of Art at the Courtauld Institute and at Sussex University. He began making artworks in the early 1990s, often showing them outside conventional galleries. In 1993, while his parents were on holiday, he secretly used the family home for an exhibition titled Open Bedroom.  

Four years later he produced the musical performance Acid Brass with the Williams-Fairey Band and began making art in collaboration with other people. In 2000, with fellow artist Alan Kane, Deller began a collection of items that illustrate the passions and pastimes of people from across Britain and the social classes. Treading a fine line between art and anthropology, Folk Archive is a collection of objects which touch on diverse subjects such as Morris Dancing, gurning competitions, and political demonstrations. The Folk Archive became part of the British Council Collection in 2007 and has since toured to Shanghai, Paris and Milan.  

In 2001 Deller staged The Battle of Orgreave, commissioned by Artangel and Channel 4, directed by Mike Figgis. The work involved a re-enactment which brought together around 1,000 veteran miners and members of historical societies to restage the 1984 clash between miners and police in Orgreave, Yorkshire. In 2004, Deller won the Turner Prize for Memory Bucket (2003), a documentary about Texas. He has since made several documentaries on subjects ranging from the exotic wrestler Adrian Street to the die-hard international fan base of the band Depeche Mode. 

In 2009 Deller undertook a road trip across the US, from New York to Los Angeles, towing a car destroyed in a bomb attack in Baghdad and accompanied by an Iraqi citizen and a US war veteran. The project, It Is What It Is, was presented at Creative Time and the New Museum, New York and the car is now part of the Imperial War Museum’s collection. In the same year he staged Procession, in Manchester, involving participants, commissioned floats, choreographed music and performances creating an odd and celebratory spectacle. During the summer of 2012 Sacrilege, Deller’s life-size inflatable version of Stonehenge – a co-commission between Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art and the Mayor of London – toured around the UK to great public acclaim.  

In 2013 Deller represented Britain at the Venice Biennale with a multi-faceted exhibition titled, English Magic. Encompassing notions of good and bad magic, socialism, war, popular culture, archaeology and tea, the exhibition gave a view of the UK that was both combative and affectionate. His First World War memorial work - We’re Here Because We’re Here (2016) and the documentary Everybody in the Place: An Incomplete History of Britain 1984–1992 (2019), have influenced the conventional map of contemporary art. Most recently Deller has published Art is Magic, a book that documents key works in his career alongside the art, pop music, film, politics and history that have inspired him. 

The National Gallery is one of the greatest art galleries in the world. Founded by Parliament in 1824, the Gallery houses the nation’s collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the late 13th to the early 20th century. The collection includes works by Bellini, Cézanne, Degas, Leonardo, Monet, Raphael, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rubens, Titian, Turner, Van Dyck, Van Gogh and Velázquez. The Gallery’s key objectives are to enhance the collection, care for the collection and provide the best possible access to visitors. Admission free. 

More information and book tickets for events at nationalgallery.org.uk