About this episode
Pedro Reyes studied architecture but considers himself a sculptor although his works integrate elements of theater, psychology, and activism. His practice takes a variety of forms, from participatory sculptures to puppet productions. In 2008, Reyes initiated the ongoing Palas por Pistolas project in which 1,527 guns were collected in Mexico through a voluntary donation campaign to produce the same number of shovels to plant 1,527 trees. This led to Disarm (2012), where 6,700 destroyed guns were transformed into a series of musical instruments. In 2011, Reyes started Sanatorium, a transient clinic offering brief unexpected treatments mixing art and psychology. Originally commissioned by the Guggenheim Museum, New York City, Sanatorium has been in operation at Documenta 13, Kassel (2012), Whitechapel Gallery, London (2013), The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada (2014), and OCA, São Paulo (2015), among 10 other venues. In 2013, he presented the first edition of pUN: The People's United Nations at the Queens Museum in New York. pUN is an experimental conference in which ordinary citizens act as delegates from each of the UN countries and try to apply techniques and resources from social psychology, theater, art, and conflict resolution to geopolitics. Recently, Pedro Reyes was commissioned by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists together with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), winners of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, to raise awareness of the growing risk of nuclear conflict, for which he developed Atomic Amnesia to be presented in Times Square, New York City, May 2022. For his work on disarmament, Reyes received the Luxembourg Peace Prize in 2021. At the same time, he inaugurated his largest exhibition to date in Mexico, at the Museo MARCO in Monterrey. In 2022, Reyes had his first solo exhibition in Europe, at the Marta Herford Museum in Germany, where he presented a large body of his early work. Currently Reyes is participating in the first Macau Biennale in China, the International Art Biennial of Antioquia and Medellín in Colombia, and has a solo exhibition at Lisson Gallery in New York. In a far ranging and deeply meaningful conversation Reyes and Zuckerman discuss relationships, accountability in art, change, the studio as a school or a guild, vicarious joy, the writer’s museum and the museum of life, hope, embracing the cringe, and understanding the world!