Archivo de la decepción (Archive of Deception), by Chilean artist Rocío Guerrero Marín, is an exhibition curated by Naranja Publicaciones that opened last Friday, March 20, 2026, at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) – Parque Forestal – in Santiago, Chile.

Artist’s website: https://rocioguerreromarin.com

Project’s website: www.archivodeladecepcion.com

Curatorial text

Archivo de la decepción – Rocío Guerrero Marín

The origins of Archivo de la decepción (Archive of Deception) date back to 2015, when Rocío Guerrero Marín created the Afectógrafo (Affectograph): a metallic collar that records involuntary body movements through the slight pressure of a pencil on paper. This tool is used in various actions in which the artist invites strangers to share, through an oral narrative, an experience of disappointment.

During the dialogue, the participant sits alone with the artist with the Afectógrafo hanging from their neck. As they tune into the emotion, memory, or trauma, the tool captures the body’s impulses as they connect with their affective memory. The result of the action consists of two parts: the drawing with involuntary strokes generated during the conversation, and a short phrase written by the participant that summarizes the shared experience.

The mobile device located in the center of the room safeguards and organizes the drawings generated during the conversations. Through a classification system for the emotions that arise during the dialogue and the typologies of disappointment associated with memory, the device stores the collaborations for later reading; simultaneously, it contains all the elements necessary to activate future exchanges that feed this emotional repository.

Finally, a collection of elements—notes, drawings, and personal objects—is included, which are linked in one way or another to the development of the work or to experiences of disappointment lived by the artist herself. This intersection between the private and the public allows us to reflect on the nature of the archive as an artistic work and to propose possible answers regarding the importance and limits of the biographical within the framework of a collectively developed project.

Naranja Publicaciones

Exhibition poster

Photographies (All images taken by Matías Pinto)