Mexico City based artist Pedro Reyes gave a new life and a new function to some destroyed 6,700 drug war related weapons that were supposedly to be buried as a way of disposing it. In his project Imagine, Reyes collaborated with six musicians for 2 weeks to produce 50 fully working instruments as their way of making a statement about the violence in Mexico.
The firearms was cut down, welded and transformed into a myriad of instruments. From strings to percussion instruments, Reyes and his team made all 50 instruments in a span of 2 weeks.
In Reyes’ blog he share why he did his project and also he called on to the society to see pass the glamour of firearms.
He stated:
“This is also a call to action, since we cannot stop the violence only at the place where the weapons are being used, but also where they are made. There is a disparity between visible and invisible violence. The nearly 80,000 deaths by gun-shot that have occurred in Mexico in the last 6 years, or the school shootings in the US are the visible side of violence. The invisible side is that one of gun trade-shows, neglecting assault rifle bans, and shareholder profit from public companies. This is a large industry of death and suffering for which no cultural rejection is expressed.Guns continue to be depicted as something sexy both in Hollywood and in videogames; there may be actors who won’t smoke on the screen, but there has not been one who would reject the role of a trigger-happy hero.”
© Pedro Reyes, Imagine, 2012
This wonderful project was commissioned and produced by Alumnos47 Proyecto Liquido, curated by Jessica Berlanga Taylor for Alumnos47 Coordination and production, Emiliano García and Marcelo Rangel Valenzuela Coordination and Musical Direction, Jazmín Zepeda Music with the help of Instrument Designers Omar Córdova. Adrián López. Alonso López. José Mena. Leika Mochan. Daniel Zepeda Blacksmiths, Antonio García Salinas and Arturo Quiroz
Check out more of this wonderful project on Pedro Reyes’ blog. Drop a comment and let us know what you guys think. Do check us out in Facebook, Twitter and Google+ also do not forget to subscribe to get the latest in all things awesome!