Chaos of Memories: on art and archiving in the aftermath of violence

This dialogue focuses on a conversation between artist Mark Menjívar, and Gabriel ("Gabe") Solis, the Executive Director of the Texas After Violence Project (TAVP). It addresses Mark's collaboration with TAVP through the DLP Inventory, an expansive project that engages the belongings of David Lee Powell, a prisoner executed by the State of Texas in 2010. Following his execution, 17 boxes of Powell's items were donated to TAVP. To demonstrate how the story of the state's execution of Powell "brushes up against our own stories," Mark shares his decision to re-engage Powell's belongings as conventional items that everyday people possess in their homes. As Gabe observes, community archives like TAVP place the unrelenting impacts of the state’s counter-violence right in front of us: We can’t look the other way. There is no escape. Liberatory memory work, in other words, is about creating the escape.