Stranger in the Village. Reflecting on Racism with James Baldwin

"Stranger in the Village. Reflecting on Racism with James Baldwin" is an exhibition held at the Aargauer Kunsthaus in Aarau, Switzerland, running across 2023 and 2024. Taking its title from James Baldwin's seminal 1953 essay, the show invites artists and visitors alike to confront the enduring realities of racism, belonging, and otherness. Baldwin's essay — written after his experience as a Black American in a small Swiss mountain village — remains a piercing meditation on race and identity that resonates as powerfully today as when it was first published. The exhibition uses this text as a springboard to bring together contemporary artistic perspectives on structural racism, visibility, and the politics of belonging.