STRANGER IN THE VILLAGE

James Baldwin’s perennial essay as a starting point for artistic exploration of racism.

James Baldwin (1924–1987) penned his famous essay Stranger in the Village in the early 1950s during a stay in the Swiss Alpine village of Loèches-les-Bains. It is the starting point for an artistic examination of the subject of racism in Switzerland, and in the art and culture industries in particular, that is documented in this multilingual French/German book.

Works by international contemporary artists — including Igshaan Adams, Kader Attia, Omar Ba, James Bantone, Marlene Dumas, Melanie Grauer, Jonathan Horowitz, Sasha Huber, Pierre Koralnik, Glenn Ligon, Martine Syms, and others—react to Baldwin’s literary-political treatise. Essays contributed by distinguished authors supplement the artistic debate and highlight the consequences of the prevailing structural racism.

The book is an invitation to break taboos. It holds a mirror up to us, raising questions that concern us all, and reveals the topicality of everyday racism to every one of us through the artworks it features.

Text in French, English and German.