Tambourine
Artist:
Pedro Reyes
(Mexican, born 1972)
Date: 2018
Medium: Destroyed weapons
Dimensions:
1 1/2 × 11 3/4 × 9 3/4 in. (3.8 × 29.8 × 24.8 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with the Brown Foundation Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund.
Object number: 2019.13.4
Copyright: © Pedro Reyes
Label Text
Pedro Reyes is dedicated to Social Practice, a type of art production in which viewers participate and enact a solution for a socio-political problem. To create these four finely tuned instruments, the artist collaborated with the Mexican Secretary of Defense, which confiscated 6,700 firearms in Ciudad Juárez. These confiscated weapons were crushed by tanks and steamrollers and then given to experienced craftspeople and metal workers to produce instruments, which can be played by professional musicians. In essence, “agents of death became agents of life.”
(Suzanne Weaver, 2020)
Pedro Reyes se dedica a la Práctica Social, un ejemplo de producción artística en la que los espectadores participan y promulgan una solución a un problema sociopolítico. Para crear estos instrumentos minuciosamente afinados, el artista colaboró con la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional de México, que confiscó seis mil setecientas armas de fuego en Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Estas armas confiscadas fueron destruidas por tanques y apisonadoras, y luego fueron entregadas a artesanos y obreros metalúrgicos experimentados para producir instrumentos. Estos instrumentos luego fueron tocados por músicos profesionales. En esencia, "los agentes de la muerte se convirtieron en agentes de la vida."
(Suzanne Weaver, 2020)
Pedro Reyes is one of the most influential international artists today dedicated to Social Practice art-making, in which viewers participate in a work that enacts a solution for a problem. In these four works or instruments from his Disarm series, Reyes distills formal acumen and socio-political critique of Mexico’s violent gun culture. For this ambitious project, Reyes collaborated with the Mexican Secretary of Defense, which confiscated 6,700 firearms in Ciudad Juárez, a city of about 1.3 million people and an average of ten killings a day. The confiscated weapons were crushed by tanks and steamrollers; then, craftspeople and metal workers created an orchestra of fifty instruments designed to be played live by professional musicians. “Taking agents of death to agents of life,” Reyes creates art to be used and explores the power to incite change through communication, creativity, happiness, and humor.
(Suzanne Weaver 2019)
(Suzanne Weaver, 2020)
Pedro Reyes se dedica a la Práctica Social, un ejemplo de producción artística en la que los espectadores participan y promulgan una solución a un problema sociopolítico. Para crear estos instrumentos minuciosamente afinados, el artista colaboró con la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional de México, que confiscó seis mil setecientas armas de fuego en Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Estas armas confiscadas fueron destruidas por tanques y apisonadoras, y luego fueron entregadas a artesanos y obreros metalúrgicos experimentados para producir instrumentos. Estos instrumentos luego fueron tocados por músicos profesionales. En esencia, "los agentes de la muerte se convirtieron en agentes de la vida."
(Suzanne Weaver, 2020)
Pedro Reyes is one of the most influential international artists today dedicated to Social Practice art-making, in which viewers participate in a work that enacts a solution for a problem. In these four works or instruments from his Disarm series, Reyes distills formal acumen and socio-political critique of Mexico’s violent gun culture. For this ambitious project, Reyes collaborated with the Mexican Secretary of Defense, which confiscated 6,700 firearms in Ciudad Juárez, a city of about 1.3 million people and an average of ten killings a day. The confiscated weapons were crushed by tanks and steamrollers; then, craftspeople and metal workers created an orchestra of fifty instruments designed to be played live by professional musicians. “Taking agents of death to agents of life,” Reyes creates art to be used and explores the power to incite change through communication, creativity, happiness, and humor.
(Suzanne Weaver 2019)
On view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
