This November, Glasgow’s Tramway hosts a five-day line-up of performances, screenings, discussions, and workshops curated by arts organisation Arika. Arika celebrates the connections between art and social change and the programme features conversations with activists and scholars, screenings from indigenous filmmakers, performances from Palestinian artists, and experimental music from artists whose work is rooted in radical political practices.
Episode 11: To End the World As We Know It is part of a larger body of collective events that work globally to help us think differently about the world, and to platform incredible movements that pair art with revolution. Their last Episode was awarded a Turner Prize Bursary, the pandemic-affected version of the Turner Prize. I spoke with co-director of Arika, Barry Esson, to learn more about this social space.
The title of this episode is To End The World As We Know It. Is this pessimistic or hopeful?
We thought about calling the Episode ‘The End of The World As We Know It’. It’s a catchier and more well-known phrase, and of course we could play the REM song at the event! But when thinking about it, what we are doing is making a gesture towards something, a process that we want to be involved in and involve others in.
So I guess it depends who’s side we’re on. The key term in the title is know, not end. I think it is profoundly hopeful, in that it calls for the end of one way of knowing the world that has been disastrous for life and the earth; what we might call the Eurocentric fictions of property, whiteness, the law, colonialism, the individual, and so on.
What is the aim of the episodes as a whole, and will there be any more?
The general aim of Episodes is to explore how art, political action, and philosophical thought overlap. We think the Episodes are one long, ongoing deconstructed festival, with a narrative that develops over time.
So what happens at one Episode might seed some things that come to fruition further down the line. We don’t know what future Episodes are going to be about, but there are themes and concerns underneath them depending on the circumstances of what’s going on in the wider world at the time. The current plan is that the next Episode will be in November 2026.
The event involves many collaborators who have been involved with revolutionary movements, but one could consider this series a movement in itself. Do you agree with this?
I don’t think the Episodes are a movement. What I would say is that we want them to be an emanation of different social discourses and practices that we are involved with. They should emerge out of those, and – while limited in many ways – be a space that adds to them. I think that involves entertainment, but it also involves being in study together, learning, sharing, eating, dancing, listening, plotting, finding common ground.
What do you want members of the public to take away from Episode 11?
I think the desire is to involve others in the research and relationships we are entangled in. So we hope that people attending will be able to participate from their own position, have their thinking amplified, feel sustained and uplifted, exposed to radical thought, and for connections between all of that to become more apparent.
You describe the event as a space that draws on anti-colonial, indigenous, anti-racist, trans feminist, and abolitionist revolutionary struggle. How do you make sure you aren’t spreading yourself too thinly across these concepts?
There are more than 35 hours of programming over 5 days. So we feel like there is lots of space to engage with different perspectives in different ways. We did an Episode focused around conceptual maths and how that relates to political organising.
We explored topos theory, which allows you to build up an increasingly sophisticated understanding of a situation by combining more and more perspectives on it. I think that speaks really directly to how we approach things. The general vibe is hopefully one of a cross-pollination of practices.
What is the significance of Glasgow and Scotland’s place in this conversation?
Glasgow has a very strong ongoing activist and political tradition, and an amazing interconnected set of artistic scenes. All of this can be seen in the great work being done by people like Art Workers for Palestine Scotland, prisoner solidarity networks, anti-racism groups, migrant and sex worker-led organising, and the ways these are tangled up the music scene (Counterflows), the visual arts, performance art (BUZZCUT, Take Me Somewhere) or youth education projects, like Red Sunday School or Rumpus Room. The Episode should try to connect global practices to local ones, so as to enrich both.
Also: Glasgow was the second city of the empire and Edinburgh was the seat of the Scottish Enlightenment. So we are complicit in those systems, and responsible. And we are both the victims and perpetrators of settler colonialism. Decisions made by Scots continue to have devastating impacts across the world, as we speak, right now.
Episode 11: To End The World As We Know It is on from the 13th till the 17th November, at Tramway, Glasgow, More info here.
Main Photo: Episode 11, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, Oriana
