Diego and Alexeja

Q: Who are Diego and Alexeja?

Diego Alonso and Alexeja Pozzoni are an Ibiza-based creative couple and the founders of Diego & Alexeja Art & Design Studio (also known as A.D Ibiza). Diego, from Argentina, is a photographer and curator who runs Mondo Galeria in Madrid; Alexeja, born in Switzerland and raised partly in Bali, spent about twenty-five years developing garments and products in Bali.

Q: What is ChAI ShOP Ibiza?

An appointment-only showroom and creative retail project in Ibiza by Diego and Alexeja, combining clothing, objects, furnishings and craft sourced in India, Indonesia and Morocco or designed by the studio, with work by artists represented by Mondo Galeria. It also appears as pop-ups around the world.

This one is very special to me.

Today I spoke with the magical creative duo Diego Alonso and Alexeja Pozzoni, creators of the appointment-only Ibiza showroom known as ChAI ShOP, full of beautiful pieces they bring back from their sourcing trips to Indonesia, India and Morocco.

It's lovely to learn about their creative process and what inspires them, and we're also very excited about their upcoming exhibition at Mondo Galeria, happening during art week in Madrid. Please read on.

Leila

Diego

Born in Adrogué, the little town south of Buenos Aires where Borges spent his summers, into a house of books and jazz. A Salvador Dalí catalogue sent him toward photography and cinema, then to India with a camera, then Madrid, where he opened Mondo Galeria. When he first landed in Ibiza in 2014, it felt like he had been here all my life.

Alexeja

Born in Switzerland in 1981 to an Italian DJ father and a German mother, she grew up between winters in St. Moritz, summers in Ibiza and years in Bali. She didn't come back to Ibiza for twenty years. On her first morning back, the smell of the pines made her cry.

How did you team up, and what have been your career highlights so far?

We met in Ibiza some years ago. It was a funny story that started with the Indian rudraksha malas we both wore. The friendship grew while Alexeja was working in fashion and Diego in art. Then we fell in love, and from the universe's bank of favours came the proposal to design the interiors of Can 7 in Formentera. We had always exchanged ideas and supported each other in all sorts of business, but it was magical to discover how well we fit together, combining our ideas and skills and turning them into reality. Like an interstellar encounter, matter falling into a dark hole full of light, things rapidly fell into place at the right time.

What followed was a cascade of projects in different fields, where we kept enhancing this creative mélange and expanding it into our daily life as well as our art curation, interior design, editorials and immersive events.

"Our best project so far is our life."

Professionally, we always look forward to the next thing. It's always exciting to face a new empty canvas and watch how things start to develop.

Greatest inspirations or influences?

We get inspiration from our daily meditation, and from the simple things in daily life that we encounter on our travels. We travel for work, for pleasure, out of necessity and as a way of living. We meet people face to face and we try to understand what is essential in living.

On a more theoretical path, we have many loves and admirations, but we both share a deep inclination toward Jiddu Krishnamurti's view of life. Does it affect our work? One must say yes, because it affects our lives.

"Inspiration is everywhere. You just need to open your eyes and see it."

Most interesting projects, and upcoming ones?

We're carrying several projects at once, like a shepherd guiding a flock through the valleys of the Atlas. Right now our energy is on the exhibition The Space in Between, artworks by Margherita Chiarva with a soundscape by Toni Castells, which we are curating at Mondo Galeria, our gallery in Madrid.

We are always thinking about and researching the interiors of Can 7 Formentera, the art-residence property of our friend Frits Thieme. And for the end of the year we are working hard on a unique immersive experience that will take place in Rajasthan, India, near Udaipur.

Diego and Alexeja laughing together in the sun, both in white with tinted sunglasses, at an outdoor terrace.

Tell us about your creative process.

We meet the client and, if we don't know them already, we try to understand their view, their needs, and why they chose us. Then we visit the location and feel it. This is essential: we strongly believe you need to resonate with a place, because one of the most important parts of our work is bringing the right vibration to a location, through art and design.

We study each case on its own, avoiding comparisons with other projects, looking for ideas and concepts that speak to us in relation to this one. The process goes on around the clock. We don't work nine to five; we do the opposite. You can wake up in the middle of the night (or the day) with a solution that triggers a whole line of ideas.

Once we're on the same path, which happens very often, we exchange ideas and bring them down to the reality of this particular project. We make a mood board for us and for the client to share the vision, which helps define budget, timing and our commitment. Once the client sets off on the path we suggest, things fall into place and the ideas start becoming real: research, sourcing and developing products, mock-ups, hands-on installation, artisan and artist collaborations. The list is long.

Depending on the project, the work is more physical or more digital, but it's always woven into our daily life. In our unroutine routine, the space we're creating is part of our conversations, our dreams, our visits to suppliers, friends and collaborators. During the process the client becomes very much part of our life.

"Ego should be left out of creation. It's all about vibration."

Do you have to travel often for your work?

We travel constantly. It's a wonderful source of inspiration. Alexeja has been travelling in and out of Bali for nearly twenty-five years, running garment and product development and setting up and following production lines for clients. Diego lived in India for more than ten years working in photography, advertising and production, followed by ten years running his gallery in Madrid and curating shows in museums and institutions.

Now we jump from place to place together, sourcing, producing and finding creative solutions for our clients. Meanwhile we're always researching and developing products for our ChAI ShOP events, in our showroom in Ibiza and at pop-ups around the world.

We mostly work with artisans, and we believe that to make products with soul, the connection with the makers has to be face to face. It's our way of building a healthy bridge between makers and buyers, keeping the relationship between the two worlds balanced and transparent. One cannot exist without the other.

Is sustainability a focus in your creative approach?

Yes. We try to keep our production as sustainable, or better said as transparent, as possible, working with small producers. We like to know the people who make things and where they come from. We recycle and rework whatever we can, using or transforming what a place already gives us. In interiors, for example, we only buy new when there's no other way.

"Sometimes the magic lies in just rearranging what is already there."

Of course there's always the question of the carbon footprint of our travels, but we try to balance it by not consuming unnecessary things and by always working with small family businesses rather than corporations.

Favourite websites or social media?

Instagram. Our approach is very visual. We have a chorus of accounts, each with a different voice:

Anything else you'd like to add?

Thank you for the interview, and for the interesting work you do scouting creative minds and events around the world. And thank you to all the artists and artisans we work with, who are the source of our inspiration, and to our clients for their trust.

To our future clients, we would like to say:

"Never be afraid of change."

Since we spoke

The couple's studio, Diego & Alexeja Art & Design (also known as A.D Ibiza), has gone on to create interiors and atmospheres for clients including Six Senses, S'Ermita Ibiza and Morocco's Petanque Social Club, while curating exhibitions and immersive experiences from Ibiza to the Swiss Alps.

And ChAI ShOP is still very much an environment rather than just a shop: clothing, accessories, furnishings, objects, art and craft, designed by the studio or found in every corner of the world, shown alongside work by the artists of Mondo Galeria. Their newest catalogue, Casa Flow, came out in 2026.

View the Casa Flow catalogue

L'Officiel IbizaPeople of Ibiza: Diego Alonso and Alexeja Pozzoni
L'Officiel ChileGente de Ibiza, amor de isla
AD SpainArquitectura, diseño y emoción en la gran velada de Gucci en Ibiza
Vogue SpainGucci da la bienvenida al verano con una íntima cena en Ibiza
Engadiner PostMy window: ein intimer Blick aus dem Fenster (Scuol, 2023)
Arte por ExcelenciasIbicenco V: Too late tomorrow

Quick answers

Who are Diego and Alexeja?

Diego Alonso and Alexeja Pozzoni, an Ibiza-based creative couple and founders of Diego & Alexeja Art & Design Studio (A.D Ibiza). Diego, from Argentina, is a photographer and curator who runs Mondo Galeria in Madrid. Alexeja, born in Switzerland and raised partly in Bali, spent around twenty-five years in garment and product development there.

What is ChAI ShOP Ibiza?

Their appointment-only showroom and creative retail project in Ibiza: clothing, objects, furnishings and craft sourced in India, Indonesia and Morocco or designed by the studio, alongside art from Mondo Galeria, with pop-ups around the world.

What have they designed?

Interiors and immersive experiences including the art residence Can 7 in Formentera, and work for clients such as Six Senses, S'Ermita Ibiza and the Petanque Social Club in Morocco.