by The Otolith Group (Artist), Kodwo Eshun (Editor), Anjalika Sagar (Editor)
World 3 complements The Otolith Group's exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall, In the Year of the Quiet Sun, which revisits moments from the grand political project of mid-century Pan-Africanism, envisioned by revolutionaries such as W.E.B. Du Bois, George Padmore, Frantz Fanon and Kwame Nkrumah as the total liberation of the African continent from Europe through the building of a United States of Africa. One key work in the exhibition is "Statecraft," where the short century of decolonization is represented through a political calendar assembled from the unlikely and anaesthetic medium of the postage stamp. Gesturing toward this piece, World 3 also employs the postage stamp as its main visual medium. The oversized volume assembles a trialogue between First Day Covers from newly independent African states, envelopes from the diaspora of the digital auction and an associative inventory of quotations from various activists and intellectuals, beautifully documenting the spirit of a powerful ideological movement.