We’re excited to reveal the first details about our annual school program ISSA 2024: To Live Together, taking place on the island of Vis from 4 to 9 October, 2024.
We will be joined by Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Total Refusal, Madina Tlostanova, James Bridle, Rumena Bužarovska, Silvia Federici (per live-stream), !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Srećko Horvat, Chto Delat?, Judith Meyer, Marko Pogačar, Želimir Periš, Marija Andrijašević, Anja Zag Golob, Saša Savanović, Pirate Care, Forest University, Memory of The World, Nadežda Čačinovič, Kӣr & Tadi, IssaFix, Drugo More, Jamie Allen, Daphne Dragona, Ankica Čakardić, Boris Buden, Goran Bogdan, Jovana Stojiljković, and many others.
The program will include lectures, performances, discussions and conversations, readings, dances, guided tours, cooking, work actions (physical labour), workshops, exhibitions, film projections, and lots of pomalo.
The detailed program of ISSA 2024: To Live Together will be announced soon.
All programs are completely free. However, you will need to register your participation to ensure you can take part in all the programs. Please register by sending us an email to issa@issa-school.org with:
Subject: REGISTRATION: ISSA 2024
-Your name
-Affiliation (if any)
-How long you plan to stay
-Whether you plan to take part in work actions (briefly mention your skills)
Please let us know if you are coming by August 20th at the latest.
If you like what we are doing and you can support us, please consider donating to support our major event this October.
ISSA 2024: To Live Together
When the Sahara dust turns the sky above the Adriatic islands into a yellowish haze reminiscent of Blade Runner, and heat waves no longer come in waves but permanently settle on the shores, we no longer need weather forecasters to tell us what’s happening.
The Mediterranean, as we know it, is rapidly changing. In the last 2,400 years, since the ancient polis of Issa was founded on the island of Vis, the sea level has risen two meters. Scientists predict that in less than 100 years, by 2100, it might rise by one meter. At the same time, the Mediterranean is warming 20% faster than the global average. We can already feel the impacts on ecosystems and communities, migration and tourism, and the ways we live and organise life.
While the Mediterranean, home to over 500 million people and economically dependent on tourism – which may soon vanish due to intolerable heat – is becoming the climate crisis “hotspot,” it is also becoming the perfect spot for much-needed discussion and reflection on what is happening and how to live, or how to create conditions for a “good life” in times of wildfires, water scarcity, droughts, and storms of all sorts, from the wild winds of capitalism to the dark clouds of fascism. Our aspiration is to create possibilities for navigation when favourable winds stop blowing and the ship remains immobile or starts to sink.
That’s why we have chosen To Live Together as the central topic of our ISSA voyage from 4 to 9 October 2024 on the island of Vis. The question is no longer whether humanity or the planet as we know it will survive; it will not. The question is how to live a life worth living – together – amid the ongoing collapse, with our myriad, human and non-human, differences.
Faced with a planet where the 6th mass extinction event is underway and a world in a permanent “state of exception”, of which the never ending war is just one aspect, it is here and now – wherever we are – that we must explore, reinvent, and enact new forms of living together, different ways of imagining – ourselves, our environments, our relations.
We invite you to join our exciting school program in October and start building new ways of being, living and learning together beyond the ruins of capitalism.
We build the school, the school is building us.
A few useful tips:
- Accommodation: There is plenty of private accommodation available in October and you can find it through the usual websites we don’t want to promote. There are two remaining socialist hotels: Hotel Biševo in Komiža (https://modra-spilja.hr/en/hotel-bisevo/) and Hotel Issa in Vis (https://vis-hoteli.hr/en/hotel-issa/).
Please note that camping is prohibited on the island (although you might not face significant trouble if you camp for a few days, however we are not equipped to accommodate people uphill at ISSA).- Transport: there a few ferries (2,5h) and catamarans (1,5h) daily from Split to the island of Vis, you will be able to find a schedule here: https://www.jadrolinija.hr/en
Most events will take place in Komiža, and if you stay there, a car is not needed – we will organize transport to the School.- Working actions at ISSA: please make sure to bring proper shoes, enough water (at least 2L per person) and working gloves. All registered participants will receive additional details in September.
