On November 11, 2018, 26-year-old African American security guard Jemel Roberson was on duty at a bar in Robbins, Illinois, U.S., when four people were shot. After Roberson subdued and pinned the shooter to the ground, he himself was shot and killed by a white police officer arriving at the scene, wrongly mistaking Roberson for the shooter.
Vivarium, Episode 6, On Guard depicts an alternative history in which the protagonist - Canadian philosophy student by day, On Guard by night - survives, and is empowered to question the everyday reality.
Episode 6 exists in-between fiction and reality: Upon scanning the QR-code on the guard’s badge, we are confronted with the internet’s search result on Jemel Roberson’s death.
Dirk Hardy
Vivarium, Episode 6: On Guard, 2020
Transparency in light-box, custom bronze glass panels, window frame
89,5 x 149,5 cm
Edition 3 of 5