What is Mexico City artist Pedro Reyes holding here? After confiscating and publicly destroying some 6,700 weapons in the city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's Secretary of Defense gave some mangled guns to Reyes, who turned them into musical instruments like this pistol-guitar. The Lisson Gallery in London is currently exhibiting two groups of Reyes' sonic creations.
The first, a series titled Imagine, is an orchestra of fifty instruments, from flutes to string and percussion instruments, designed to be played live. The second, Disarm, is a never-before-exhibited installation of mechanical musical instruments, which can either be automated or played live by an individual operator using a laptop computer or midi keyboard.Says Reyes: It's important to consider that many lives were taken with these weapons; as if a sort of exorcism was taking place, the music expelled the demons they held, as well as being a requiem for the lives lost.