Fran Ilich Morales Muñoz is a Mexican writer and media artist who principally works on the theory and practice of narrative media.

Ilich focuses on the creation of collective wealth and alternative financial flows, and inventing unorthodox ways to fund and maintain social infrastructures. His practice draws on ancient modes of exchange, and uses narrative and creative devices to forge organizational models that transform capitalist systems into solidarity platforms. Rather than reject existing financial tools and capitalist mechanisms, such as banks, bonds, hedge funds, and capital accumulation, he shuffles them around in such a way that they instead can foster community-building enterprises and non-vertical economies.

Ilich’s novel Circa 94 won the binational Frontera de Palabras award, and his book-length essay “Otra Narrativa es Posible” will be translated and published in English this year. He has extensive experience in teaching languages and writing, as well as editing and screenwriting. He has participated in Berlinale Talent Campus, Transmediale, ARCO, Documenta 12, and has shown at the Walker Art Center, Streaming Cinema Festival, Antídoto and the EZLN’s Festival Mundial de la Digna Rabia.

Ilich’s ABOG Fellowship supported the Diego de la Vega Coffee Co-op, which aims to connect rural agricultural workers in Mexico’s Zapatista communities and service industry laborers in New York City by serving Zapatista-grown coffee at catered events throughout the city. Diego de la Vega Coffee Co-op was additionally financed by Spacebank, an ongoing art project and virtual community investment bank founded by Ilich in 2005.