Mexican artist Pedro Reyes is no newcomer to transforming weapons of destruction into instruments of construction. In 2008, he led a project called Palas por Pistolas to remake 1527 confiscated weapons into an equal number of shovels that were then used to plant the same number of trees. Earlier this year, the Mexican government contacted him to offer 6700 additional confiscated revolvers, shotguns, machine guns, and other weapons, cut into parts and essentially destroyed, for another project. What he came up with is Imagine, a set of 50 musical instruments crafted by six musicians working for two weeks straight. A few examples are shown below, along with a video of the instruments in action. Many more images are available on his site and over on Designboom.
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/51739769 w=598&h=281]
16 thoughts on “Weapons Transformed into Musical Instruments”
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I really don’t like this posts related to weapons.
As a maker, I’m fascinated by individuals doing something useful or beautiful with junk, however as a libertarian I am repulsed by the knowledge that this project is a celebration of violence committed by the largest criminal organization in his country (the Mexican govt.)
Mr. Reyes and his friends are just useful idiots serving up propaganda and doublespeak for the masters.
Now if the govt. wants to give its weapons back to the people for the next project, then we will have something to celebrate!
Now the OBAMA administration has an out, the ATF and DOJ send those AK-47s to Mexico to be rendered into art. But not until they were used to kill hundreds of mexican civilians and Central American migrants making their way north through Mexico.
Just a suggestion to make editors – from a fan of protecting myself and my family – if you want to preserve and restore the tranquility of this community, probably wise to lay off gun or weapon builds of any shade for a while.
Swords to plowshares anyone? Please extract the panties from your culos kids, these are Mexican artists reflecting on their f-ed up domestic situation. When’s the last time y’all went through an armed checkpoint? I’m guessing the artist has done so quite often. Sorry to impugn your moral authority, but I’m guessing that your tax dollars do far more harm than this artistic expression.
Cool, and I really appreciate what he’s doing to make world better and safer. He’s make great arts and great value.
I’m not sure if the “moral authority” comment was directed at me, but I will respond anyway.
I promise no flames either. ; )
The point of my post was not to assert my moral superiority over others. I’m well aware of what my tax dollars fund, that culpability is one of the reasons why I regularly speak out against such abuses.
Now, if Reyes and co. were merely simple artists who came across some junk guns and decided to make art with them, then OK I’ll let that go. However that is obviously not the case at all. This project was planned in concert with the govt. from the very beginning and publicity was always the goal. I’m sorry, but this is propaganda not art and deserves to be treated as such. No plowshares were created, only more lies and rationalizations.
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