The State of L3
The State of L3 is an international network of artists blending different artistic media and disciplines. As an artist collective, The State of L3 is an initiative that is the result of a network of different artists working together internationally through the following of a shared ideology and aesthetics.
The State of L3 – whose name is a reference to the DNA chain for people that originate in West Africa – was established in 2006 by the Dutch/Panamanian filmmaker and artist Antonio Jose Guzman. With bases in Amsterdam, Dakar and recife the international, pan-African art commune works as a triangular cooperation that has historic references to the former Dutch colonies and to the triangle of commerce for the colonial rulers and for the African Diaspora.
The State of L3 plays a significant role in the artist’s practice, because of the collective increased intelligence made possible by the cross combination of multiple creative minds and disciplines and also because of the networking capacities involved with the project. The name of the collective was inspired by the African L3 human DNA haplogroup. L3 played a pivotal role in the history of the human species, because migrants carried it around the globe, inaugurating an intercontinental migration that eventually settled every major land mass on Earth. That group gave rise to every non-African DNA haplogroup.
At Framer Framed in Amsterdam the State of L3 presented the group show Ancestral Blues – The Return to the State of L3 (2015) is curated by Vincent van Velsen, including work by Raul Balai,
Femi Dawkins, Raquel van Haver, Antonio Jose Guzman, Amanda Koelman and Fleur Ouwerkerk.
Ancestral Blues – Return to the State of L3 (2015). Foto: Marlise Steeman / Framer Framed