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Roldán’s Journal

Proyectos Ultravioleta
Guatemala City, Guatemala

“See if you have made me go crazy
that instead of hating you I want you “
– Jose jose

El Diario de Roldán is the first personal show of Juan Brenner in Proyectos Ultravioleta. In it, Brenner explores the thin line between reality and fiction, from an object trouvé that reached his hands more than 4 years ago and that will finally make known in this sample: Roldán’s diary. This one was made by Roldán himself, who worked as a bodyguard with a Guatemalan high society family while also living with them. The sample includes 8 photographs of collegiate cut that were stolen by Roldán, in which both the girl he looked after and his teenage friends appear. Going into its pages is getting direct access to the mind of this character characteristically Guatemalan. In the newspaper we find an imagined world where he takes refuge from his sad and lonely reality, and appropriates the voices of some of the young people whose photographs he has stolen. Using the first person, the bodyguard writes to himself a wide repertoire of motivational messages, dedications of friendship and even, one or another message of love.

The diaro becomes then the starting point of the in-depth investigation carried out by Brenner, whose purpose is to investigate Roldán’s text and thus approach a very particular portrait of the bodyguard, a figure already fundamental in contemporary Guatemalan society. The exhibition will allow the viewer to get closer to the newspaper and to some psychiatric reports made to Roldan. Additionally, a scale reconstruction of the room in which Roldán lived during the months he worked for that family, and where he created the newspaper will be presented. There will also be, among other things, a series of motivational videos made with phrases compiled from written documents that once belonged to the bodyguard.

According to figures issued by the Ministry of Labor in September 2009, approximately 867 new positions for bodyguards are created in Guatemala per quarter, with a 6% growth rate. Currently, it is estimated that there are around 11,250 citizens working to take care of the backs of about 1,870 Guatemalan families. According to the National Civil Police, last year 965 bodyguards died in altercations related to their profession.

Other exhibitions by these artists at Proyectos Ultravioleta: