Brač, Hvar, and Vis comprise “islands of conviviality”, where will be staged critical, creative conversations and itineraries, group fieldwork activities and creative artistic programming. The project’s objective is to create transdisciplinarity enquiries of the history, relevance, and critical applications of “conviviality”, as conceived by the Croatian-Austrian philosopher, social critic, and Roman Catholic Jesuit priest Ivan Illich.
Illich’s avocation was for reconfiguring societal structures and systems toward prioritising human well-being, and meaningful relationships while restoring autonomy and agency to individuals and communities. Illich’s ideas were inspired by his own time on the Adriatic islands and his grandfather’s homestead on Brač. Islands of Conviviality returns to a locale, source and initiation of some of Illich’s ideas, situating conviviality within an environment Illich was influenced by while animating these proposals and critiques through contemporary contexts of culture, sociality, ecology and politics of the region.
Each event takes place consecutively over three days, (two nights) and invites local and international researchers, practitioners, artists, designers and thinkers to exchange, present work, create collaborative workshops and activate group fieldwork and activities on each island.