2026 | Culture Commons: International Forum on the Sustainability of Culture

Forum on Sustainability

2026 | Culture Commons: International Forum on the Sustainability of Culture

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from Sep 25, 2026 to Sep 26, 2026

Forum
onSustainability
fromSep 25, 2026toSep 26, 2026atSanta Sofia New York Shenzen

Culture Commons: global perspectives for building a more collaborative and sustainable culture.

Following the success of its first edition, the 2026 International Forum on the Sustainability of Culture is expanding its international network and deepening its reflection on culture as shared infrastructure.

The second edition, dedicated entirely to Culture Commons, will take place on 25–26 September 2026 in a hybrid format — in person and live-streamed on YouTube and social channels.

The edition's theme, Culture Commons, also shapes how it is organised: the Forum unfolds through a distributed network, rooted in each of the territories that host it. Both days follow the same relay-style schedule, moving across the time zones of eight hubs — Tokyo, Shenzhen, Tanguiéta, Jakarta, Berlin, Guatemala City, Santa Sofia, and New York — connecting them in real time, online and in person. The roundtables, made up of artists, economists, scholars, and cultural professionals, invite open participation and live questions from anywhere in the world.

A branching structure with a single aim: to put the commons to the test as a model. Are they genuinely applicable to cultural, economic, and social life? And where they are, with what practical tools? Each roundtable is conceived as a collective laboratory, tasked with posing practical questions and formulating concrete answers.

Many of the in-person events across the various venues are designed to generate social impact in the places where they unfold. At the Santa Sofia venue, the work on local engagement begun in the previous edition blossoms into a group exhibition and a closing assembly (not streamed), conceived to translate the themes discussed at the international roundtables into practice within the specific local context — one rich in grassroots community associations.


FRIDAY 25 SEPTEMBER

14.00 – 14.30    Welcome and opening of the Forum

Institutional greetings

14.30 – 14.45    Presentation of the Forum

Objectives and themes of the 2026 edition

THEME 1 · Digital Commons, Technology and Artificial Intelligence   #DIGITAL_COMMONS

What commons emerge through technology, and what role can technology play in their development?

14.45 – 15.30    Vision 1

Q&A and discussion to follow.

15.45 – 16.30    🌍  International connection

Berlin — Trust

Q&A and discussion to follow.

THEME 2 · Shared Governance and participative cultures   #POWER_DISTRIBUTION

What collaborative and democratic models exist for the distribution of power?

17.00 – 17.45    Silvia Federici   ·   Vision

Q&A and discussion to follow.

18.00 – 18.30    Vision 2

Q&A and discussion to follow.

18.45 – 19.30    🌍  International connection

New York — Prime Produce + Cybernetics Library + Wikimedia NYC

20.00 – 20.15    Gladys Tzul Tzul   ·   Vision

Q&A and discussion to follow.


SATURDAY 26 SEPTEMBER

9.30 – 10.15    🌍  International connection

Tokyo — Denkiyu

Q&A and discussion to follow.

10.30    Laura Pando Martínez  —  Julie’s Bicycle   ·   Vision

Q&A and discussion to follow.

11.00 – 11.45    🌍  International connection

Shenzhen — Sea World Culture and Arts Center

Q&A and discussion to follow.

THEME 3 · Post-Capitalist Economies and Mutualist Models   #MUTUALIST_ECONOMY

What mutualist economic structures are viable in post-capitalism?

12.00 – 12.45    🌍  International connection

Tanguiéta (Benin) — Écomusée Tata Somba

Q&A and discussion to follow.

13.00 – 14.00    Lunch break

14.00 – 14.45    🌍  International connection

Jakarta — ruangrupa

Q&A and discussion to follow.

15.30 – 16.30    Session in Santa Sofia  —  Institution

Q&A and discussion to follow.

16.45    End of live streaming

17.15    Collaboration and Territorial Synergies Table

In person · Vero Stoppioni Gallery of Contemporary Art, Santa Sofia (not streamed)

19.30    Opening of the group exhibition dedicated to the Territorial Network

Vero Stoppioni Gallery of Contemporary Art, Santa Sofia


The event will be streamed on our YouTube channel.

The complete program will be released soon.

Silvia Federici

Philosopher

Silvia Federici

Silvia Federici is a feminist activist and a renowned political theorist. One of the most important voices on the Commons.

Gladys Tzul Tzul

Sociologist

Gladys Tzul Tzul

Gladys Tzul Tzul is a Maya K'iche’ woman from Totonicapán. She is a writer and essayist. Holding a PhD in Sociology, she has conducted research in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico, Ecuador, and the United States.

ruangrupa

curatorial collective

ruangrupa

ruangrupa (which loosely translates as ‘a space for art’) is an artist’s initiative and collective started in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2000.

Laura Pando

Interim CEO of Julie’s Bicycle

Laura Pando

Laura Pando Martínez, is a culture and climate expert practitioner and the Interim CEO of Julie’s Bicycle.

Trust

Berlin (Germany)

Trust

Trust is a Berlin-based knowledge community and research collective, active since 2017, describing itself as "an incubator for utopian conspiracy."

Prime Produce Apprentice Cooperative

New York City (USA)

Prime Produce Apprentice Cooperative

Prime Produce Apprentice Cooperative is a worker cooperative that has run a roughly 700 sqm guildhall in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan (424 West 54th Street), since 2018.

Wikimedia New York City

New York City (USA)

Wikimedia New York City

Wikimedia New York City is the official Wikimedia Foundation chapter for the New York metropolitan area, recognized since 2009

Cybernetics Library

New York City (USA)

Cybernetics Library

The Cybernetics Library is an interdisciplinary browsing library that re-contextualizes the expansive history of cybernetic thought and practice.

Denkiyu (電気湯)

Tokyo (Japan)

Denkiyu (電気湯)

Denkiyu (電気湯) is a historic sento — public bathhouse — in the Kyojima neighborhood of Sumida ward, Tokyo. It was one of the locations of the movie Perfect Days by Wim Wenders.

Sea World Culture and Arts Center

Shenzen (China)

Sea World Culture and Arts Center

The Sea World Culture and Arts Center (SWCAC) sits on the Shekou coast, Nanshan district, Shenzhen, overlooking the mountains of Hong Kong

Écomusée Tata Somba

Tanguiéta (Benin)

Écomusée Tata Somba

The Écomusée Tata Somba, opened in March 2021 in Tanguiéta (Atacora department, 25 km from Pendjari National Park), is West Africa's first ecological museum.

Vero Stoppioni Gallery

Santa Sofia (FC), Italy

Vero Stoppioni Gallery

The Vero Stoppioni Gallery of Contemporary Art in Santa Sofia was inaugurated in 1990, growing out of the long tradition of the Campigna Prize, an art event founded in 1955 by the Municipality of Santa Sofia thanks to the commitment of teacher Vero Stoppioni, to whom the gallery is dedicated.

LAM Foundation for Contemporary Arts

LAM Foundation for Contemporary Arts

Partner

Comune di Santa Sofia

Comune di Santa Sofia

Promoting Committee

Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi

Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi

Promoting Committee

Fondazione Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì

Fondazione Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì

Partner

San Marino University

San Marino University

Collaborator

Wikimedia NYC

Wikimedia NYC

Sponsor


See Also

2025  | International Forum on the Sustainability of Culture

2025 | International Forum on the Sustainability of Culture

The Forum is a global initiative dedicated to rethinking the role of cultural institutions in building sustainable futures.

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