With B+B I decided to co-produce an artists conference at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. It was a pivotal gathering. Lots of people came, lots of talking and writing notes collectively. Structured as Open Space with Suzy Adderley. Organised chaos in a good way.
This ambitious event was prescient in that it already seemed like a swansong for the conversational gathering, or a bit like a too long party. Times were changing, artists becoming facilitators etc. Later, in 2004 when the Arts Council produced a series of 5 conferences around socially engaged art – Interrupt – it seemed to me like a sanitised version of earlier happenings, and became an arena I needed to leave behind. It had changed beyond recognition. For Interrupt, I made a small intervention in response to a commission for the conference programme – Free Lunch – transcribing and publishing private one to one conversations.
Date
2001
Aknowledegements
B+B Sophie Hope and Sarah Carrington
Vicky Lewis, Baltic
Suzy Addderley
Viv Reiss, Arts Council England
Archive
Audio and transcripts