‘A stranger in your own house’, Miguel Ripoll’s new exhibition in Tangier

Until 5 February 2026, Dar Niaba, the museum of travelling artists in Tangier, will be hosting the exhibition “A Stranger in Your Own House” by Miguel Ripoll*, organised by the Islamic Culture Foundation (FUNCI) in collaboration with the National Foundation of Moroccan Museums (FNM) and the Spanish Embassy in the Kingdom of Morocco.

The exhibition presents a collection of post-figurative digital collages on paper, hand-drawn, assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) and inspired by the travels of Ibn Battuta. It explores the concepts of diversity, identity and cultural memory through a dialogue between tradition and emerging technologies.

The exhibition celebrates the centenary of the great 14th-century Tangier explorer Ibn Battuta, whose travelogue, known as the Rihla, recounts almost thirty years of experiences spanning from al- Andalus to the Middle East, India, Russia and China.

Inspired by the shared heritage of Morocco and Spain, Miguel Ripoll revisits historical accounts of the encounter between cultures in this exhibition.

The Dar Niaba Museum, or Museum of Travelling Artists, part of the FNM museum network, is the perfect setting for this exhibition, as it offers an enriching contrast between the Orientalist works in its permanent collection and Ripoll’s contemporary vision of human and cultural issues that have changed little over the centuries.

International diplomatic affairs

The inauguration was held on 4 November in the beautiful rooms of this restored mansion, which in the mid-19th century became a new state institution under the reign of Mulay Abderrahman (1822-1859) to deal with international diplomatic affairs. It was attended by Mehdi Qotbi, painter and president of the FNM, José María Davó, cultural advisor to the Spanish Embassy in Morocco, Aurora Diez-Rato, Consul General of Tangier, Juan Vicente Piqueras, director of the Cervantes Institute in Tangier, as well as representatives of FUNCI Maroc, Yolanda Guardione and Inés Eléxpuru.

Inspired by the shared heritage of Morocco and Spain, Miguel Ripoll revisits historical accounts of the encounter between cultures in this exhibition. The artist questions how, for centuries, the view of “the other” has oscillated between fascination, exoticism and ignorance. He also questions the representations inherited from romanticism and orientalism, and reinscribes them in a contemporary context marked by migration, displacement and intercultural exchange.

Collaboration between technology and the hand

Ripoll’s works are the result of a collaborative process between technology and the hand: images generated, reworked and then enriched with manual gestures using ink on archival paper. This interaction between matter and algorithm, between past and present, gives each piece both visual and conceptual depth.

At the crossroads between memory and modernity, Miguel Ripoll invites the public to engage in a visual meditation on our connection to the world and how stories from the past continue to influence our contemporary identities.

*Miguel Ripoll has been collaborating with the Foundation for more than two decades, designing such renowned exhibitions as “Qalam, l’art du livre”, “Al-Andalus, a culture of water”, “The andalusi garden” and “Cultural Landscapes of al-Andalus”, recently inaugurated in Sharjah (UAE).