There&rsquo;s a paradigm shift in the north of Ibiza as the Soho-based art space reimagines the community-led ideals of the last century.

It&rsquo;s a sultry Sunday night in late September and an eclectic crowd has gathered in San Miguel&rsquo;s hottest new hangout to honour the closing night of an exhibition by the Mexican-German conceptual artist, <a href="http://www.stefanbruggemann.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stefan Br&uuml;ggemann</a>. One of the island&rsquo;s most influential creatives, Br&uuml;ggemann's much-photographed Ibiza home is a monument to Brutalism, and the long table that hosts his celebratory supper includes Patagonian fashion designer <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/portraits/the-life-and-times-of-marcelo-burlon">Marcelo Burlon</a>, newly-appointed Moschino creative director <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/fashion/who-is-the-new-creative-director-of-moschino-adrian-appiolaza" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Adrian Appiolaza</a> and the Romanian art dealer <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/ibiza/art-as-a-way-of-life-stefan-cosma">Stefan Cosma</a>. The previous Monday, a vinyl-only cocktail party soundtracked by Uruguayan DJ Fer Gomez had the north of <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/ibiza/ten-ibiza-restaurants-to-soak-up-the-early-autumn-energy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ibiza</a>&rsquo;s wildest set &ndash; painter Aldo Kodak, journalist Jorge Montojo and Australian contemporary artist <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/art/sunshine-betrand-william-mackinnon-interview">William Mackinnon</a> - dancing barefoot until the small hours, fuelled by potent cocktails and a psychedelic sense of magic realism. So just how has Gathering, the Soho-based contemporary gallery founded by prominent art dealer <a href="https://www.instagram.com/alex.flick/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alex Flick</a>, managed to shake up Ibiza&rsquo;s sleepiest northern village? The answer, it seems, lies in the community.

Alex Flick is no stranger to the art world - his father is the well-known collector Mick Flick and Alex himself cut his teeth at Swiss modern art powerhouse <a href="https://www.hauserwirth.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hauser &amp; Wirth</a>, whose 2021 foray to the Balearic island of Menorca has been a monumental&nbsp; success. Gathering London, the pared back, industrial space founded by Alex in 2022 showcases experimental, multidisciplinary and environmentally active artists with a focus on radical and innovative shows that veer towards the political: a current exhibition by Aps&aacute;alooke (Crow) artist Wendy Red Star is a deep dive into the ancestral - and profoundly spiritual - relationship between North America&rsquo;s First Nations people and the plains buffalo. Perhaps Ibiza, with its socially engaged community and radical global outlook, represents an audience hungry for the type of art that raises more questions than it answers?

&lsquo;Ibiza &mdash; in particular the north &mdash; is home to an extraordinarily broad spectrum of humanity in a relatively small geographical area&rsquo;, muses Alex. &lsquo;There are artists and architects, collectors and hippies, musicians and financiers. Art knows no social boundaries &ndash; it speaks to the wider human condition. It is an interpretation of the world around us both through the eyes of the viewer and of the creator.&rsquo; 
Certainly, Ibiza&rsquo;s reputation as a refuge for artists is nothing new. Since the arrival in 1932 and 1933 of German architect <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/design/sense-of-place" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Erwin Broner</a>, philologist Walter Benjamin and the Berlin Dadaist Raoul Hausmann, the island has become a magnet for European and American artists in particular, drawn by the permissive culture, the archaic local customs, the thriving intellectual scene and the peculiar quality of the light. The key factor, however, in Ibiza&rsquo;s renown as a sanctuary for contemporary art has always lain in the island&rsquo;s ability to create a seamless sense of connection between art and the community. In the mid-century period, exhibitions were held in private homes, while groups of artists holed up together in shared rural fincas. Sculptors, painters and maverick minds gathered en masse &mdash; when not sinking cocktails in La Marina &mdash; for beachside picnics and visits to Ibiza&rsquo;s historical and cultural landmarks. And this, perhaps, is the key to Gathering&rsquo;s success &mdash; that alongside the gallery, in a shady courtyard that&rsquo;s part secret garden, part late-night speakeasy, sits <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mira.gathering.ibiza?igsh=MXdlM2tieDdlMWI5MQ%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mira</a>, an experimental restaurant and cocktail bar that has become the de facto hub of Ibiza&rsquo;s contemporary creative class.

Headed up by Argentinian artisan and curanto cook Sigfrido Scuticchio - himself a linchpin of the north&rsquo;s hip art scene &ndash; Mira is a natural extension of the gallery, cultivating a fluid connection where art meets society meets music meets food. In essence, it&rsquo;s a return to the intellectual (and largely lawless) &lsquo;caf&eacute; culture&rsquo; so ingrained within the development and success of Ibiza&rsquo;s original modernist art scene. In the middle of the last century, it was Ibiza Town&rsquo;s fabled Domino bar where the art set gathered to share political views, sketch out new projects, drink endless martinis and dance to jazz records. At the time, Catalan designer Andr&eacute; Ricard Sala noted that: 'real art takes place in the huddles at the bar, in the hallways and on the buses. That is where the art world truly communicates.&rsquo; Thanks to Sigfrido&rsquo;s innate sense of connection, of playfulness and of charm, those midcentury ideals have relocated to Mira, where Turner Prize-winning artist Tai Shani&rsquo;s breast-shaped lanterns illuminate a bubblegum-pink bar, shoes are kicked off to dance and conversations in five languages go on long after dark. &lsquo;Mira is a place of experimentation, of entertainment, of exploration,&rsquo; says Sigfrido. &lsquo;It is a place to eat and drink and connect, but it&rsquo;s also a place to have fun, to be free, to be a part of something. Mira is about pure collaboration.&rsquo;

As Ibiza&rsquo;s reputation as an international nexus for <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/ibiza/can-art-ibiza-contempory-art-visionary-living" target="_blank" rel="noopener">contemporary art</a> gathers pace, the number of new galleries on the island will &ndash; and should &ndash; proliferate. And in this climate of conceptual experimentation, Gathering and Mira will succeed, because the narrative they have crafted is one of art as a pastime, art as a way of life, art as a new paradigm for modern living. And with that comes the sense that San Miguel is on the cusp of something revolutionary.

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Ibiza

Is San Miguel’s Gathering gallery reframing the future of contemporary art in Ibiza?

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