We’re living in strange times. The present seems like it’s built on shifting sands and the future? Well, that’s anyone’s guess. But it does feel like it’s up for grabs.
The Mothership Collective 2:0 will invite visitors of all ages to imagine potential futures by visiting stations throughout the exhibition, each one drawing on sci-fi, futurisms and utopian thinking. Using sound, text and objects, visitors will be encouraged to explore their creativity and have collaborative encounters that explore what different futures might look like.
Artist Harold Offeh will transform the ground floor gallery of Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art into a sci-fi playscape this summer, creating collaborative encounters between audiences and artists.
Revisiting ideas from his 2006 project The Mothership Collective, Offeh once again brings together artists, musicians, and the public to explore joy, play, and alternative possibilities, inspired by Afrofuturist legends like George Clinton and Sun-Ra.
Informed by collaborations with North East communities and guest artists, this exhibition is a living, evolving space activated by public engagement and collective imagination. Offeh’s playful, provocative practice—rooted in performance, humour, and social commentary—encourages visitors to rethink the future through creativity, curiosity and joy.
“I’m excited to be revisiting and reconceiving The Mothership Collective with the Baltic. The project is an invitation to play, make and speculate about future possibilities and desires. We want to make space and the conditions for creativity, curiosity and joy as fundamental to any form of change,” said Harold Offeh.
For two decades Harold Offeh has produced work including performance, video, photography, learning and social arts practice. His playful and often provocative works employ humour as a means to confront the viewer with historical narratives and contemporary culture.
Drawing from music, film and mainstream cultural trends, Offeh interrogates political, class, gender and racial models in society. Recently through performance and collective live engagements, Offeh has explored joy, play and Afrofuturism.
The exhibition at Baltic will be informed by collaboration with communities in the North East and, throughout the exhibition, invited artists will work with members of the public to activate the space from the perspective of their own practices
Harold Offeh: Mothership Collective 2:0 is on show from 5 July 2025 until 1 February 2026 at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead.
Harold Offeh: The Mothership Collective 2:0
5 July 2025 – 1 February 2026
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
