The Baltic Gateshead
The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Arts is a centre for ever changing international contemporary art. The 1950s building used to be an old flour mill. Conversion began in 1988 and the Baltic opened it’s doors in 2002.
the rejuvenated flour mill
It is situated on the South bank of the river Tyne in Gatehead and is a very impressive building. The lifts are glass and the exhibition spaces are huge! Even the shop is amazing,. Though a lot smaller than the London Tate, it has some very unusual items for sale.
Mark Dion the desk of a tropical ecologist Guyana field Samang creek 1999
When we were there, the 4 major exhibitions were photographs by Fiona Crisp, videos by Beirut artist Akram Zaatari, ‘soundings’ recordings by Bill Fontana, which could be heard all over the building. There was a group exhibition called ‘A Duck for Mr Darwin’ which featured artists Charles Avery, Marcus Coates,, Dorothy Cross, Mark Dion, Andrew Dodds, Mark Fairnington, Ben Jeans Houghton, Tania Kovats and Conrad Shawcross. This particular exhibition drew attention to Charles Darwin’s work and theories and is based on corrospondence between Darwin and a young naturalist called Alfred Russel Wallace. Read about it HERE.
