Gabriel Massan & Collaborators:
’Third World: The Bottom Dimension’
23 June - 26 November 2023
Presented at Serpentine North, this immersive exhibition offered audiences an opportunity to play a collaborative game in a communal setting around site-specific set design, sculptures, sound and films.
The Brazilian digital artist Gabriel Massan worked with several regional creatives and developers to develop this multi-level collaborative game as part of the Serpentine Galleries' Artist Worlds programme.
‘Third World: The Bottom Dimension’ emerged from Massan’s interest in technological, social and economic decentralisation and included participatory digital tokens powered by Tezos. Players can record ‘memories’ of their own actions as they play the game, and by minting this record (or snapshot) on the blockchain, build a public archive of multiple perspectives and actions. In addition, a limited-edition collection will continue to bring together Massan, their collaborators and a wider community of web3 artists, growing as the exhibition tours.
Through the lenses of decoloniality, queerness and decentralisation, Third World challenges us to rethink the ways in which we understand and orient ourselves in the world. Central themes include ancestral knowledge, healing, ecological awareness, transmutation, and agency.
Through Valérie’s position as Head of Art for the Tezos ecosystem, she worked closely with the Serpentine Arts Technologies team, the developer Papers, and several contractors to integrate the blockchain elements of the game and to coordinate marketing to grow an international audience for the collaboration.

Gabriel Massan, Continuity Flaws: The Loophole at Outernet Arts, London, 2023. Image courtesy of Outernet Arts

Third World: The Bottom Dimension © Serpentine. Photo: Hugo Glendinning

Third World: The Bottom Dimension © Serpentine. Photo: Hugo Glendinning