Pedro Reyes

For his works, Pedro Reyes (b. 1972, lives and works in Mexico City) uses architecture, sculpture, video, performance, and participation to promote collective and individual power of action in political, social, ecological, and educational situations. His projects take place in the research field between a socially shaped understanding of architecture, the sensual and symbolic dimension of sculpture, and a decidedly political stance that adopts a radically humanist and Marxist position. At documenta 13 in 2012, for example, he presented the work Sanatorium, a first-aid pavilion for lifestyle diseases, such as stress or anxiety, which offered a variety of therapies based on shamanism, cognition research, and relationship counselling in a playful yet socially binding and unifying way. Reyes attracted international attention in 2008 with his project Palas por Pistolas, for which he worked with the local authorities of Culiacán, Mexico, to exchange weapons from the local population for coupons to purchase domestic appliances and electronics, melt these weapons down, and recast them into 1,527 shovels to plant trees. Since then, these actions have continued both in the local environment and with international cultural institutions. In connection with Reyes’ exhibition «Return to Sender» at Museum Tinguely, this project is being continued with the planting of a new chestnut tree directly in front of the museum entrance. The invitation to Reyes to develop a new work for Museum Tinguely follows on from an earlier work from 2012. For the work group Disarm, he was able to use 6,700 weapons confiscated in the Mexican drug war and transform these into musical instruments. In a first version, he created instruments that could be played live by musicians who were friends of his. This was followed by the conception of an multi-part weapon-instrument ensemble Disarm (Mechanized), I 2012-13, which plays percussive music pieces in a mechanized and automated way. In this newly created group of works, weapons are acquired from specific manufacturers and then destroyed in order to create resonating bodies from their barrels to be used in newly created music boxes. They play well-known, classical music pieces from the respective manufacturer’s country of origin. A musical box made with Glock pistol parts plays Mozart, Beretta barrels Vivaldi, while Reyes's weapon of choice for Swiss songwriter Mani Matter is the Carabine. Reyes is concerned with «upcycling» – transforming an instrument of death into a musical instrument that stands for dialog and exchange. Disarm (Mechanized) II, 2014, will enter into dialog with Tinguely’s Mengele-Dance of Death (1986) as part of the exhibition. In the dialog between the two works presented in adjacent rooms, Tinguely’s criticism of totalitarianism and Reyes’ critical examination of the society-destroying exchange processes of drugs and weapons meet in a gruesome dance of death. Recent solo shows include: “Doomocracy – House of Political Horrors”, Creative Time, New York (2016); “Domingo Salvaje”, La Tallera / Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Cuernavaca (2016); Dallas Contemporary, Dallas (USA); “pUN: The People’s United Nations”, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2015)”; “Sanatorium”, The Power Plant, Toronto (2014), Whitechapel Gallery, London (2013) and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2011); “The Permanent Revolution”, Jumex Museum, Mexico City (2014); “Pharmasphere”, Boston Museum of Fine Arts (2013); “Os Terráqueos”, Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo (2013); “Baby Marx”, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2011). Recent group shows include: Paiz Art Biennial, Guatemala City (2016); “The Revolution will not be gray”, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2016); “Hors Pistes”, Centre Pompidou, Malaga / Paris (2016); “El orden natural de las cosas” , Jumex Museum, Mexico City (2016); “Transformers”, MAXXI Museum, Rome (2015); “Who interprets the world?”, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (2015); “Invento – Revolutions that Invented Us”, OCA, São Paulo (2015); “Station to Station”, Barbican Centre, London (2015); “Ciclo”, CCBB, São Paulo (2014); “PER/FORM How to do things with[out] words, CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid (2014); “El Teatro del Mundo”, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2014); “In the Spirit of Utopia”, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2013); 12th Sharjah Biennial (2013); Liverpool Biennial (2012); Gwangju Biennial (2012); dOCUMENTA(13), Kassel (2012); Istanbul Biennial (2012). His work is part, among others, of the following collections: 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Colección Jumex, Mexico; ICA Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco; Bronx Museum, New York; Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh; La Tallera / Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Cuernavaca / Mexico City, Mexico; MAXXI National Museum of the 21st Century Arts, Rome; Mac/Val Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne, Vitry-sur-Seine, France; Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico; MUAC Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City; MFA Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.