Leap Before You Look Remi From Gorillaz On Why The Future Of Creativity Belongs To Those Who Imagine It First

Creative Boom: Insight Art & Culture Ibiza Art Weekend: Remi from Gorillaz on why the future belongs to the creatives who imagine it first Amidst the wildness of the Spanish island's superclubs, the drummer and producer for virtual band Gorillaz argues for creativity without fear. Written By: Tom May 12 May 2026 Left to right: Tafari Hinds from Red Eye Media, Remi Kabaka Jnr from Gorillaz and Mark Dale, founder of W1 Curates The setting alone makes you feel like you've arrived in the future. I’m standing in Hï Ibiza— DJ Mag's four-time #1 Club in the World—watching Gorillaz animations ripple across immersive LED galleries.

It's a masterclass in digital maximalism; then you hit the garden, to be confronted by a life-size sculpture of a Fiat 500. Carved from a 15-tonne slab of Carrara marble, this imposing artwork sits with a strange, silent gravity against the club’s high-octane backdrop. It's 10pm on a Friday in Ibiza. But I'm not on a wild night out; I'm here to watch a panel discussion about art. Welcome to Culture Collective, a symposium organised by London-based art platform W1 Curates in partnership with The Night League, the company behind superclubs Hï Ibiza, Ushuaïa Ibiza and [UNVRS].

This marks the start of Ibiza Art Weekend: a season-long exhibition that's transforming three of the world's most famous clubs into art galleries, featuring work by over 70 international artists. An ambitious, slightly audacious idea, and one that's very Ibiza. Of the symposium's many sessions, the drawcard is 'From Street to Screen: Banksy to Gorillaz.' Its guest, Remi Kabaka Jr., is a man who's spent decades at the intersection of music and visual culture—making him the perfect avatar for an event doing exactly that.

Moderated by Tafari, editor of Red Eye Magazine, and joined by Mark Dale, founder of W1 Curates, this turns out to be the most energising conversation of the night. Remi is hugely quotable, endlessly thoughtful and, as I confirm when I catch up with him later, remarkably warm and approachable for someone of his cultural stature. Art for all Given his background in street art, it's not surprising Remi is on board with the democratic ethos of Ibiza Art Weekend. "Galleries should be outside," he states with passion. "The space that you live in should be your gallery.

No one should dare keep you from the art, which essentially belongs to you anyway." It's been the philosophical foundation of a career built around making creativity accessible to ordinary people. Back in the day—before Gorillaz, before the global arena tours and hit albums—Remi was part of a London scene called Unity; a loose collective of artists, graffiti writers, musicians and designers who couldn't get into galleries and so created their own. "We'd go to a sunken playground in the middle of the night and just turn it into a gallery," he explains.

"It was the perfect space, because someone can set a bar up in the corner, someone can set a sound system up in the corner, and we'd do it for like 12 hours." Before Unity, he recalls, there were Circle Line parties: a group of friends boarding the London Underground's circular route on a Sunday, picking up more at each station until, by the time they'd completed the loop, it had become a party. Their attitude was straightforward: if no one will give you a space, take one. "If no one would let us run a club, we did it on the cheap. If no one would let us have a gallery, we'd steal a playground.

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