Ibiza has long been a sanctuary for the creatives, bold thinkers and free spirits of this world, serving as a haven for those seeking to escape the noise and, at times, tensions of the wider world. It is apt, then, that on 4 October, Ibiza’s contemporary art community will gather at Juntos House for Negotiating Belonging, a charity auction bringing together artists, collectors, cultural figures and guests around a shared table – and with a shared sense of purpose.
The event is presented by Art Initiatives, a cultural platform based in Ibiza connecting contemporary art, international dialogue and social impact. Through exhibitions and benefit auctions, the initiative creates spaces for cultural exchange while supporting organisations that expand access to education and creative opportunity.
The benefit event pairs a seated lunch with an auction of works by an international group of contemporary artists, raising funds for two very different but connected causes: Anno’s One Fine Day, which provides free creative education to children and young people in Kibera, Nairobi, and Ibiza-rooted initiative Espais de Vida, which works to strengthen local structures that keep land, housing and cultural spaces accessible as shared resources for communal life.
The theme, Negotiating Belonging, feels particularly apt for an island that is so transient in nature. Ibiza is a place that attracts dreamers and doers alike that come to the island and reinvent themselves – but how long they ultimately stay is written in the stars, or, if you believe the lore, dependent on the Goddess Tanit’s goodwill. Its thriving arts scene reflects that fluidity: artists, curators, collectors and creative practitioners arrive from across Europe and far beyond, bringing different histories, cultures and ideas into conversation with an island whose own identity is constantly evolving.
Rather than approaching this theme of kinship as something fixed, Negotiating Belonging considers how identity, place, memory, migration and community are continuously shaped and renegotiated. The artists participating in the auction bring distinct perspectives to those ideas, exploring the connections between personal history and collective experience.
Among them is Aline de Laforcade, who lives and works in Ibiza and creates handwoven tapestries and sculptural textiles inspired by the island’s landscapes and folkloric textures. Her practice positions textile as a language of cultural memory and spatial thought.
Angolan-Portuguese artist Pedro Pires, based in London, explores identity, migration and human rights through sculpture and installation, while Brazilian artist Rafaela de Ascanio, who lives and works in Lisbon, investigates displacement, memory and cultural hybridity through painting, sculpture and installation.
Al Varo Tavares D’Guilherme, born in Luanda and based in Berlin, creates raw, text-layered paintings and mixed-media works that bring together New Brutalism and art brut. Drawing on urban life in Berlin and Lisbon, he works with unconventional materials and poetic fragments, creating pieces that feel caught between language, architecture and the physical texture of the city.
The late Burkhard Driest (1939–2020) brought biography and art together through distorted figures suspended in space. His early experiences of war and displacement informed a practice concerned with psychological pressure, while his paintings reveal states of vulnerability, aggression, intimacy and estrangement.
For Conxi Sane, painting and ceramics become vehicles for exploring the subconscious. Born in Málaga, she draws on surrealism and cubism, while architecture and music provide rhythm and structure. Her abstract works translate unseen emotions into vibrant forms, moving between the deeply personal and the universal.
German-Lithuanian artist Egle Otto explores identity, memory and transformation through layered paintings that move between abstraction and figuration. Her Heldinnenbilder — or “Heroine Paintings” – reimagine mythological and historical figures, considering questions of agency, desire and knowledge.
Based in Berlin, Louis Wessendorff creates multilayered paintings populated by symbols, pictograms and associative references. His works operate almost like visual systems waiting to be decoded, combining text-like layers and playful irony to create intricate narratives suspended between reality and perception.
Noah Latif Lamp, a self-taught artist from Amsterdam and part of an artistic family, approaches art through action, gesture and mixed media. His work reflects on raw realities, questioning social structures and human behaviour, at times through controversial or boundary-pushing activations. There is a deliberate friction in his practice between the artwork and the social norms it confronts.
For Noah Becker, painting begins with sound. Born in Munich and now based in Berlin, he treats his canvases almost as maps of feelings, memories and music, translating auditory experiences into colour and form using chalk, spray paint, acrylic, tape and markers. The process is intuitive, allowing abstract and narrative possibilities to emerge from the relationship between painting and music.
Nigerian artist Odinakachi Okoroafor, born in Enugu, creates concept-driven works examining the Black body as a site of memory and resistance. Through screen printing, brushwork and image transfer, his paintings address identity, labour and inherited trauma, connecting individual experience with wider histories.
And Sarice Brudet, born in Germany and of Dutch, Indonesian and Surinamese descent, explores balance, unity and cultural hybridity through abstract and semi-realistic painting. Her layered approach uses colour and structure to consider empathy, connectivity and transformation. She is also the founder and curator of THE SPACE //, a platform dedicated to interdisciplinary dialogue around cultural and societal themes.
Their varied practices reflect something recognisable about Ibiza itself: the meeting of different worlds. The island’s cultural landscape has long been shaped by people who have arrived carrying their own references, influences and stories, and by the conversations that happen when those stories encounter a particular place.
The choice of Juntos House adds another layer to the event. Set within a traditional Ibicencan house in Sant Mateu d’Albarca, the farm-to-table restaurant is closely connected to the land around it, with organic seasonal produce grown in its regenerative fields or sourced from local partners. Its long-table spirit – generous food, sharing and unhurried conversation – provides an appropriately intimate setting for an event centred on connection and community.
For Ibiza’s collectors and art patrons, the auction offers an opportunity to engage with a group of artists whose work addresses questions that extend well beyond the gallery walls. But the appeal of the event is not simply the acquisition of art. Every participating artist is contributing to a shared initiative in support of creative education in Nairobi and the protection of community, land and cultural resources in the Balearics.
Following the lunch and auction, the event moves into the evening at Mira Cocktail Lounge in Sant Miquel, where Art Initiatives founder and director Johanna Driest will play a five-hour vinyl set, accompanied by cocktails from Fernando Leo Navarro and fusion-inspired bites by Tiago Borges.
Founded in Ibiza in 2024, Art Initiatives describes itself as a cultural platform connecting contemporary art, international dialogue and social impact. Its benefit auctions and exhibitions are conceived not simply as presentations of art, but as spaces for exchange and connection within wider communities.
The Negotiating Belonging charity auction and seated lunch will take place on Sunday, 4 October 2026, at Juntos House, Ibiza. Tickets cost €168 per person, including 10% VAT.
The full catalogue of artworks is available to view here.
Make your reservation via www.art-initiatives.com
