Islands of Conviviality
September 1–9, 2026 · Split, Brač, Hvar, Vis [ Program ]
an island pedagogy across the southern Dalmatian archipelago marking the centenary of Ivan Illich’s birth
With Hito Steyerl, Jürgen Renn, Claire Pentecost, Yvonne Illich, Srećko Horvat, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Damir Ugljen, Armina Pilav, Jamie Allen, Valeria Graziano, Gordan Savičić, Felix Stalder, Morana Miljanović, Manja Ristić, Saša Savanović, Kevin Kenjar, Laura Lotti, Ivica Mitrović, Dora Vanette, Aleksandra Sekulić, Dennis Schep, Luis Brum, Mariana Pestana, Cassie Thornton, John Kim, the Anthropocene Commons network, and probably a few others.
A photo of a young Ivan on a donkey on the island Brač; the Ilich (Ilić) name is one of the island’s oldest, its windmills and a 16th-century complex of houses can still be found on the island
Islands as a way of life, as a way of learning.
In early autumn 2026, a small research procession departs from Split, the ancient Roman coastal city, and crosses the seas between Brač, Hvar, and Vis: three islands that each, in their own way, host ways of living away from the mainland. We eventually arrive on Vis, an insular territory with a deep history of refuge and autonomous actions.
We travel together also to explore the legacy of Ivan Illich (born September 4th 1926), a Croatian-Austrian thinker who, through his best-known writings—Medical Nemesis, Deschooling Society, Tools for Conviviality—posed generative challenges to the industrial-modern institutions that still presume themselves to be ‘indispensable.’ Illich insisted on environmental health, offered a vocabulary for institutional alterity, and emphasised the importance of technology as convivial tools rather than as deterministic fate. In the year of his 100th birthday, we gather in and between places that shaped his life and thinking, as only “one month after his birth he was put on a train, and then on a ship and brought to the Island of Brač.”
Now, amid collapsing international orders, infrastructures of “openness,” technopolitical fascism penetrating all spheres of life, and a climate that is changing everything—many of Illich’s questions land with new urgencies. Islands of Conviviality treats these not as the inheritance or heroism of one thinker but as situated invitations to think and act with hosts, guests, visitors, local humans and nonhumans, landscapes, ecologies, others. Each island carries Illichian threads:
Brač — Plenty and Remedy. Around the agroecological project Divja Herbal Crafts OPG of Armina Pilav, her family and other Earth companions, and the centenary day of 4 September (Illich’s birthday): land practices, herbal knowledge, foraging, fermentation, embodied non-institutional care, and silence as a commons. Medical Nemesis unfolds as a walking itinerary from Bobovišća N.M. led by Damir and Armina then in Divja kitchen and garden, with sensorial communing process ‘Hands in Food’, eaten from a shared table. ‘Hands in Food’ will lead us to the next occasions of conviviality, a collective morning visit to the Hermitage Blaca and at the sunset an immersive Soundscape in Vičja Vala Bay produced and shared with the public by sound artist and musician Manja Ristić.
Hvar — Heritage and Holiday. Around the Renaissance palace of Petar Hektorović and his 1556 fishermen’s travelogue Ribanje i ribarsko prigovaranje: what do people come to islands to find? What does visitation, also as tourism, amplify and erase? Who gets to rest and play together? Deschooling Society in the garden of a fortified summer house that is ready to receive and protect.
Vis — Tools and Autonomy. At ISSA on the hill above Komiža: Solar conviviality as energy, water, communications, solar-powered web hosting. Sharing tools for an intermittent internet, a diurnal digitality. What infrastructures of autonomy might look like against a world of enshittified platforms, mega data centers and proprietary clouds.
The sea is itself a site of the Sea Symposium, a set of slow, processional research crossings, comprising readings on deck, listening, mapping, and other relative movements together.
Taking Part
The Islands of Conviviality programme runs at four scales, marked in the programme below:
Public — everyone welcome, no registration needed. (The LAUNCHES book event in Split; the Arka Kinari port performance in Hvar; Hito Steyerl’s keynote at ISSA on Vis; the closing reflection.)
Public, limited participation — open to all, but with limited seats. You will need to register, and sign-up details will appear here in the coming weeks. (Valeria Graziano’s afternoon excursion in Stari Grad; the Naan-Aligned communal dinner in Komiža; the Brač centenary day; and others.)
For participants and volunteers — the on-water days between islands and the Sea Symposium sessions on board. The boats hold only so many people, and the project’s slow, research-processional spirit asks us to keep things gentle and unhurried.
A small number of volunteer programme-contribution slots remain for those willing to lead a short reading, listening, cooking, or making session during one of the crossings or island days. To propose something, please write to laulotti@gmail.com, kkenjar@gmail.com, and ja@jamieallen.com with a short note on who you are and what you would like to contribute to the processional. To be added to our small notifications list for info or spots as it becomes available, please write to the three listed.
By invitation — closed to the public. Small, in-the-room working sessions for specific invited and collaborating communities.
We continue to seek partnerships, support, boats, and connectivity that might further enhance the journey, its topics, and its reach. If you’d like to help, in any form at all, please simply reach out.
Program
Tuesday 1 September —
LAUNCHES. On knowledge in the Anthropocene, and on living and learning from impaired waterscapes — with Jürgen Renn, John W. Kim, Ivica Mitrović, Armina Pilav, and Jamie Allen, at PROSTOR (Culture Hub Croatia), in partnership with UMAS Arts Academy, University of Split and the Anthropocene Commons network. Croatian translation provided. (Public)
Wednesday 2 September — Split
Boat onboarding and a port-side launch with the Ermenautica sailing collective, opening the on-water Sea Symposium strand. (Public)
Thursday 3 September — Sea → Brač
First on-water Sea Symposium en route to Brač. (For participants and volunteers)
Evening session, walk and visit with Yvonne Illich (Ivan Illich’s niece), sharing memories and images from the island. (Public, limited participation)
Friday 4 September — Brač
Ivan Illich’s centenary day at OPG Divja, hosted by Armina Pilav — foraging, herbal practice, communal cooking, a processional visit to the Blaca Hermitage, and a sound and listening commons performance. (Public, limited participation)
Saturday 5 September — Brač → Hvar
Morning sail and Sea Symposium toward Hvar. (For participants and volunteers)
The Adriatic as an Archive of Experiments in Decommodified Pleasure — afternoon excursion in Stari Grad with Valeria Graziano and Kevin Kenjar, opening at Hektorović’s palace and threading through the UNESCO Stari Grad Plain. (Public, limited participation)
Evening port performance by the Arka Kinari: A floating cultural platform, a performance by the artists Filastine & Nova, a seventy- ton sailing ship on a voyage to promote resilience to climate change and re-engagement with the sea. (Public)
Sunday 6 September — Hvar → Vis
Morning workshop with students of the Hvar tourism high school at the Stari Grad City Museum garden, co-led by Valeria Graziano and Morana Miljanović. (By invitation, students only)
Evening sail and Sea Symposium toward Vis. (For participants and volunteers)
Monday 7 September — Vis (ISSA)
working action at ISSA — building, maintaining, cooking, learning together. (Public)
Intermittent Internet workshop with !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Gordan Savičić, and Felix Stalder, on ISSA’s On/Off Heliophilic Spaces solar-powered hosting node and the Solar Protocol. (Public, limited participation)
Keynote lecture by Hito Steyerl — artist, filmmaker, writer — at ISSA, in the evening. (Public)
Tuesday 8 September — Vis (ISSA)
Restitution session: what was learned, what is returned. (By invitation)
Ljeto u Komiži × Naan-Aligned — communal dinner and discussion on insular cuisine and food sovereignty (Kevin Kenjar & ISSA, with the Komiža Tourist Board). (Public, in Croatian, limited participation)
Wednesday 9 September — Vis → Split
Closing reflection (Public)
Final Sea Symposium, sail returning to Split (For participants and volunteers).
We are grateful to Convivial Stiftung and to the ERSTE Foundation for the support that has made this programme possible, and to the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology for enabling the Anthropocene Commons launch event in Split. Islands of Conviviality spoke to many friends through Forest University, hosts of an Ivan Illich reading group in the Spring of 2025. We work in partnership with the Island School of Social Autonomy (ISSA), Vis · OPG Divja, Brač · Pharos Institute, Hvar · UMAS Arts Academy, University of Split · Quelili sailboat for intercontinental solidarity · Ermenautica · ARKA KINARI · Culture Hub Croatia / PROSTOR, Split · the Anthropocene Commons network · metaLAB (at) Harvard, Berlin & Basel · Komiža Tourist Board · Mississippi River Open School for Kinship and Social Exchange. We are excited to work with L’Internationale / Museum of the Commons and Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb published writings and media expositions of the project.
With love — ISSA, and all the other islanders…
