Where Do We Go From Now?

In October 2021, the world found itself suspended between crisis and possibility. The shock of the pandemic had exposed the fragility of systems once assumed permanent. Political certainties were eroding. Ecological warnings were becoming impossible to ignore. As world leaders prepared to gather in Glasgow for COP26, questions that had once seemed distant suddenly felt immediate. How do we live together? What kind of future remains possible? And perhaps most urgently, where do we go from now?

Marking the first anniversary of CIRCA, this month-long public programme transformed some of the world’s most visible screens into a space for collective reflection. Rather than commissioning a single artist or artwork, CIRCA posed a question. Simple in its phrasing yet expansive in its implications, Where Do We Go From Now? invited artists, architects, activists, writers, philosophers and members of the public to imagine pathways through a moment defined by uncertainty.

The project emerged from a recognition that periods of disruption are also periods of invention. Throughout history, moments of rupture have forced societies to reconsider their values, institutions and assumptions about how the world should be organised. The aftermath of a global pandemic presented one such moment. While experiences of crisis differed dramatically across communities and continents, there was a growing sense that returning to normal might no longer be sufficient. The question was not how to rebuild the world exactly as it was, but how to imagine what it could become.

Contributors including Ai Weiwei, Marina Abramović, Nikita Gale, Indy Johar and Tom Whyman approached the question from radically different perspectives, yet their responses shared a common understanding: that the future is neither inevitable nor fixed. It is something continually shaped through acts of imagination, participation and collective responsibility. Marina Abramović proposed a world grounded in simplicity, forgiveness and care. Ai Weiwei emphasised the defence of human dignity, freedom and mutual respect. Together, these voices formed neither a manifesto nor a consensus, but a constellation of possibilities.

At the centre of the project was a simple democratic gesture. Public space became a place not only for display but for dialogue. Members of the public were invited to submit their own responses, many of which were broadcast on Piccadilly Lights and across CIRCA’s growing international network. In doing so, the project challenged conventional distinctions between audience and author, proposing that the future belongs not exclusively to experts, politicians or cultural figures, but to everyone willing to participate in its imagining.

The resulting programme functioned as a public archive of hopes, fears, ambitions and uncertainties. Through moving image, text, conversation and publication, Where Do We Go From Now? documented a rare moment when societies around the world were collectively reassessing their direction. The project recognised that while people may disagree profoundly about the future they wish to build, the act of asking the question remains essential.

One year after CIRCA first interrupted the rhythms of advertising with Ai Weiwei’s inaugural commission, this anniversary programme shifted the platform’s focus from presenting public art to facilitating public thought. The question itself became the artwork. Its medium was conversation. Its material was participation. Its subject was the future.

If the twentieth century was defined by competing visions of progress, Where Do We Go From Now? acknowledges something more complex: that we no longer stand at the beginning of a new era, but within it. The challenge is not to predict what comes next, but to decide, together, what deserves to endure, what must change, and what worlds remain possible from here.