One day in late July of 2021, one of the co-founders of ISSA visited Vis, one of the leading philosophers of our present and multiplicity of possible futures, Franco “Bifo” Berardi. He was one of the co-conspirators when the “Island School of Studying Autonomy” was just a crazy idea.

Together with our friends !Mediengruppe Bitnik we first made our way to Tito’s Cave, which Bifo and Claudia visited for the first time.

After a conversation about the legacy of the anti-fascist struggle and the importance of the island of Vis in WWII at the first cave, we finally reached the second cave, the one that served as Tito’s headquarters from July 1944 on. You can read more about it (in English) in Fitzroy Maclean’s memoirs, Eastern Approaches, or, more recently, Srećko Horvat’s Poetry from the Future.

After this first historical stop, we made our way to ISSA by climbing above the cave.

From where we are now, it’s an hour’s hike to Hum, the highest peak on the island; an hour and a half hike to Komiža; and a two and a half hour walk to Vis; but luckily, we only have 10 minutes left to get to the School, so we are happy.

Once we arrived at the place of our future School, or better said, the “School from the future”, Saša and Kajo were waiting for us, and we sat down for refreshments, made a plan to record a conversation with Bifo in Vis, and imagined what some parts of the program at the School might look like. Certainly, we’d love it this way, with a bit of hiking, visiting Tito’s Cave, taking it “pomalo” and discussing and enacting the meaning of the “good life” in the times of extinction. But also, so much more…