Pedro Reyes

Pedro Reyes

Mexico City, 1972 Lives and works in Mexico City.

Pedro Reyes seeks to develop critical discourses with his audience to produce works of art that invigorate social spaces. He has founded several spaces for temporary projects and creates works that involve public participation in large but ephemeral projects.

The work of Pedro Reyes touches on themes that interact between physical place and social space, making invisible geometry tangible in our personal relationships. His design projects that propose playful solutions to social problems include turning firearms into musical instruments, hosting the United Nations to address urgent issues, and offering ecological grasshopper burgers from a food cart.

| Estatua de Angela Davis | Piedra volcánica de recinto | 2016

Estatua de Angela Davis | Volcanic rock of enclosure | 2016

DISARM (PSALTERY IV) | INSTRUMENTO HECHO CON ARMAS DESTRUIDA | 40 X 60 X 28 CM | 2014

DISARM (PSALTERY IV) | INSTRUMENT MADE WITH DESTROYED WEAPONS | 40 X 60 X 28 CM | 2014

His pieces cover topics as complex as political and economic philosophies and are reformulated in ways that are easy to understand.

Often viewers enlist as participants, either through individual conversations, therapeutic acts or as creators of objects in collaborative workshops.

His expansive notion of sculpture examines the cognitive contradictions of modern life, and the possibility of overcoming our particular crises by increasing our degree of individual and collective agency. Thus Reyes explores the power of individual and collective organization to incite change through communication, creativity, happiness and humor.

Pedro Reyes, Música para Litófonos | Interpretado por Tambuco, 2018 from LABOR on Vimeo.

This video shows the result of the collaboration between Mexican artist @_pedro_reyes_ and the Mexican percussion ensemble Tambuco during Reyes’ fourth individual exhibition at LABOR, “Music for Litophones” in 2018.

For this project,Tambuco made a series of presentations at LABOR in which they played a composition made expressly by Ricardo Gallardo, completing the co-creative process of these works, coming to life with sound and generating a musical discourse. It is not the first time that Pedro Reyes makes musical sculptures made with unexpected materials, as is the case of “Disarm” (2012), where he transformed firearms into instruments, or “Satori” (2016) where he worked with Balinese gongs percussed by mechanized drumsticks. These two slopes; the sculpture in stone and the production of instruments, converge in this exploration of the lithophones.

Silla Mitla | 2019 | Concreto rojo | 45 x 54 x 80 CM

Silla Mitla | 2019 | Red concrete | 45 x 54 x 80 CM

Silla Mitla | 2019 | Concreto rojo | 45 x 54 x 80 CM

Silla Mitla | 2019 | Red concrete | 45 x 54 x 80 CM

Pliegue | 2019 | mármol de Carrara | 60 x 22 x 28 cm

Pliegue | 2019 | Carrara marble | 60 x 22 x 28 cm

Protester V | Concreto y varilla | 116.5 x 52 x 45 cm | 2017

Protester V | Concrete and rod | 116.5 x 52 x 45 cm | 2017

Los Pájaros | Video | 10 min | 2016

Los Pájaros | Video | 10 min | 2016

Doomocracy | Voting Room | 2016

Doomocracy | Voting Room | 2016

Sanatorium | Actividad grupal | Pieza instructiva | 2013

Sanatorium | Group activity | Instruction piece | 2013

Disarm | Vista de instalación | Metal reciclado de artmas confiscadas en Ciudad Juárez | 2012

Disarm | Installation view | Recycled Metal from weapons confiscated in Ciudad Juárez | 2012

Cómo perderle el miedo a la pintura | Vista de instalación | 2012

How to overcome your fear of painting | Installation view | 2012

El Buana | Tela sobre bastidor | 123 x 100 cm | 2012

El Buana | Rack fabric | 123 x 100 cm | 2012

Pico della Mirandola (recinto de ozumba) | Piedra tallada | 160 x 80 x 65 cm | 2012

Pico della Mirandola (recinto de ozumba) | Carved stone | 160 x 80 x 65 cm | 2012

Palas por pistolas | Detalle | 50 palas hechas con el metal de 1.527 armas destruidas por habitantes de Culiacán, México. | Medidas variables | 2008

Palas por pistolas | Detail | 50 shovels made with the metal of 1,527 weapons destroyed by inhabitants of Culiacan, Mexico | Dimensions variable | 2008

Palas por pistolas | 50 palas hechas con el metal de 1.527 armas destruidas por habitantes de Culiacán, México. | Medidas variables | 2008

Palas por pistolas | 50 shovels made with the metal of 1,527 weapons destroyed by inhabitants of Culiacan, Mexico | Dimensions variable | 2008

Pedro Reyes | "Chac Mool" from LABOR on Vimeo.

Related Exhibitions

Music for Lithophones

Feb 03 2018 - Mar 31 2018

Music for Lithophones

Pedro Reyes

Join the Dots

Sep 19 2014 - Oct 31 2014

Join the Dots

Pedro Reyes

Rompecabezas

Apr 16 2012 - Jun 16 2012

Rompecabezas

Pedro Reyes

babymarx

Feb 25 2010 - Apr 17 2010

babymarx

Pedro Reyes

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