An intruiging Baltic Exchange: Rule Brittania but does Brittania rue her waves? b'Fhéidir, Perhaps
The history of the Baltic Exchange goes back more than 250 years. The media in the Baltic state of Estonia now dub the building an “alien structure” looking for a home in Tallinn.
An Irish Republican Army bomb attack badly damaged the Baltic Exchange in April 1992. Three people died in the explosion Paul Butt, Danielle Carter and Tom Casey. Following the bombing the Baltic Exchange was dismantled stone by stone; parts catalogued and put in storage. The intention was to restore the historic building in the end it was replaced by the iconic “Gherkin” building.
Deprived of its historic home the building's catalogued parts were bought by an Estonian businessman and shipped to the Baltic State of Estonia in 40 shipping containers in 2007.
Efforts have been made to give new life to the Baltic Exchange building in Estonia and combine its facade with several new real estate developments.
In this current exhibition fragments of the Baltic Exchange building, which has stirred a good deal of controversy in the Estonian public, make their first life-size appearance. Visitors will be able to stand face-to-face with the historic building’s pediment, which was displaced by the IRA Bomb.
Few buildings have undergone so many changes in context. In addition to physical relocation, countless design projects, visions and proposals have been produced regarding where and how to place the building. But what about a building that loses its original site? How should connections with a new environment be created? Who is to pass judgement on the value of a piece of architecture? What value is there in salvaging a building? How do we develop emotional ties with architectural symbols and what role do such ties play as a means of exerting influence in society and politics?
The authors of the installation were fascinated by more and more topics as they unravelled the story one layer after another. Sometimes an individual detail may be more evocative than the building as a whole. A single fragment may turn out to be an unexpectedly powerful symbol, able to sway both social and political decision processes.
The exhibition at the Museum of Estonian Architecture challenges the boundaries of the architecture exhibition as such, expanding the means of presenting architecture and ways of interpreting it. On the one hand, the exhibition offers a new kind of personal emotion of experiencing space; on the other hand, it poses a series of critical questions about the museum environment and the customary format of the architecture exhibition. For the museum, this is primarily an opportunity to create new value that speaks to the contemporary visitor with an interest in architecture.
It will also be of immense interest to those who wish to begin unravelling the complex and multi-layered history of the relationship between Ireland and England which led to bombing campaigns in 1881-1883, 1971 1973, 1975-1977 and latterly from 1990 until 1997.
With the exhibition happening in the Baltic state of Estonia this should prove to be an interesting Baltic Exchange.