Bozar welcomes the latest edition of Bozar Arcade, featuring the imaginative video game Third World: The Bottom Dimension by Brazilian artist Gabriel Massan.
This video game invites visitors to explore a new world through the lens of decolonization and decentralization. The project was originally commissioned, produced and exhibited by Serpentine Arts Technologies between 2021-2023 as part of its commitment to artistic interventions that challenge and reshape the role that technologies can play in culture and society. It has been touring internationally ever since, shown at venues (including the Pinacoteca in São Paulo, the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Julia Stoschek Foundation in Dusseldorf, Centre Pompidou in Metz and the MAAT in Lisbon) and now comes to Brussels for an exclusive stop as part of its world tour.
Third World: The Bottom Dimension is a project that brings together a generation of interdisciplinary, queer, Afro-diasporic Brazilian artists, including Novíssimo Edgar, Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro, and LYZZA. Their work reflects on the challenges of self-representation and encourages us to reconsider how we understand and orient ourselves in the world.
Massan’s work explores the concepts of strangeness and ignorance, especially in the way the so-called ‘Third World’ is often portrayed. At the same time, it explores how digital infrastructures can empower people, drive change, and share and spread different perspectives.
The commission to the artist Gabriel Massan expands an existing video game work, to show it in a new immersive environment. The artist worked to produce sculptures as game stations to play the video game. Together with architecture office CLUBE and a team of producers, the artist looked into the physical space as an extension to the digital field.
The work included two sculptures forming a gaming seat for the visitors on a stage. A system was built to transmit either one of live gameplay on a tv wall, turning the video game into a movie, which can be watched by the public present in the space. In such, moments of collectivity are shaped through a certain articulation of spatial elements.
