Pedro Reyes in "Mexico City" - Season 8 | Art21

[strumming music]

[Speaking Spanish]

[Plays "A" note]

[Pedro Reyes] I believe that anything can 
become material for art.

It's one of the freest environments
because you're requested to reinvent the rules.

[Chimes]

— Let's try with revolvers, but it would
be better with pistols.

— Si. Si.

This is one of the many workshops that I've been 
doing where we turn weapons into instruments.

[Speaking Spanish]

[welding]

The notion of sculpture is 
having the understanding

that you can take that material and give it shape.

Something that was designed to kill, 
how will it produce sounds for music?

[Chiming]

I often find myself knocking at the 
doors of different government agencies

trying to persuade them to embrace this initiative 
as something that could happen on a national scale

because we need to get rid of all the weapons that 
are entering our territory from the United States.

Doing these workshops is an attempt to 
transform not only the material metal

but also to try to create a 
psychological transformation and,

hopefully, a social transformation.

[Percussion music]

[Electric guitar]

[Music continues]

I grew up in Mexico City, 
and I have always lived here,

and I don't have any plans to move.

I love it.

I studied architecture, although I 
had always wanted to be an artist.

After architecture school, I wanted to have 
a kind of a space for doing experiments,

and I opened an artist-run space 
called Torre de los Vientos.

It was a hollow tower made in 1968,

and I knew this space was abandoned.

I squatted in, and I started to use it as

a studio and then invite other 
artists to do projects there,

so when I started that, I was 23 years old,

and I didn't have a kind of artistic dedication,

but I learned through curating what 
was the trade of being an artist.

[Rain falling]

I consider myself a sculptor.

As an artist, I'm very interested with how things 
are built and how you can walk around them.

I also am very concerned with form and materials.

It's interesting because in architecture,

you learn to solve problems,

so I think that that stick
with me, you know,

the issue of having to solve problems

to a degree that often, it's hard for me to think
just art for art's sake.

— And then here we could have other
sheet metal pieces

so when it moves back and forth, you hear

♪ Ping ping ping ping ♪

Artists change the perception of things.

So something that is considered disgusting,

such as an insect, you could turn that into a 
source for protein and make food out of insects.

These are the crickets.

so, you see

mm mm, mm

They have their little legs 
and stuff.

Mm mm. They're very yummy.

Making a hamburger which, instead of meat,

you use crickets could have a
tremendous effect in the environment.

Our reliance of meat as a source for 
protein is driving the planet to extinction.

This was an idea that my son gave to me.

[laughs]

— They're cricket hamburgers.

— Whoa!

— This is an experiment.

— Really?

— Let's see if it's successful.

— They're so big, the issue is to grab them because...

— No, but the size is good, it's actually very good.

[Pedro Reyes] Other people may copy the idea, so you 
hope that, in a way, you spark a trend.

[violin music]

— Camarada, I have a new
idea for a manifesto.

— Good, good, friend. What idea?

— All that is solid melts into
air.

Hwahhh...

— I don't know if that could
happen.

[Pedro Reyes] When I became a parent, I started to 
see how my kids were feeding their mind,

so I decided to do this puppet show where I could 
present the political debate between, you know,

capitalism and socialism,

like Marx on one side or Adam Smith on the other.

[Smith Puppet] And I have no cookie,
and, therefore,

you should give me your
cookie.

[Pedro Reyes] OK. Well, you're gonna fight
over who eats the cookie

but using these kind of, uh,
ideological ideas.

[Marx Puppet] Well, according to you,
the capitalist,

you should have bought a
cookie

so you would have ownership of
the cookie,

and then you would have the
right to eat all of the cookie.

[Smith Puppet] OK. Just give me the cookie.

[Marx Puppet] You can't have my cookie.

[Smith Puppet] Give me the cookie.

[laughs]

[Pedro Reyes] Mythology, mathematics, neurology, 
pacifism, poetry, psychology.

That's social sciences, feminism, 
social justice, Latin America.

I mean, like, I think that my
library is like my brain.

In any moment, one section of the library 
becomes the raw material for a new series.

For me, every year, I need to 
move to a different planet...

One big, new field of research that I start.

It becomes an entire system of reading materials 
and sculptures that will be made and a show.

[strumming music]

— All right.

[Pedro Reyes]The People's United Nations, or pUN,
is an idea that I had since I was a kid.

— I did it.

[Pedro Reyes] There's a comic strip made in 
the Sixties called "Mafalda."

She's saying, "Yes. When I grow up, 
I'm gonna be an interpreter at the UN

so when one delegate tells another,

"Your country stinks," uh, I'm
gonna translate, ''Oh, your country's charming,'

and then, you know, 'I'm gonna avoid global war,'

and then she looks at the planet and says, like,

"Well, you have to promise you 
will last until I grow up."

[laughs]

— On the count of 3. 1, 2, 3.

[Pedro Reyes] Role-play is something that 
is very much present in pUN.

[indistinct conversation]

The fact of being in character and the character 
being that you're the delegate of your country

makes this game very serious,

and I love serious games. 
I mean, I love serious fun.

— So I'm from Mexico City.
I've been living in California for 4 years.

— Yeah.

— I love my city. I love my
country...

— Yeah.

— but it isn't like, people are
scared.

— "If you were the president or head of state of China,

what change would you
implement?"

— In the past two years,

two members of my family have
been killed.

— Remove the nationalistic
component of a school curriculum.

— We need to rise as citizens.

We need to not just complain.

— Super fun talking to you.

— So fun talking to you, too. [laughs]

[Pedro Reyes] That is why art is useful,

because you can have this
rehearsal space

where you can play.

[laughter and conversation]

[Pedro Reyes] This workshop is called
"pUN Times."

Each of you say to the group
something about your country,

but it's, like, actually
something

that you don't like about your
country,

so we're gonna turn that
negative thing

into a positive headline of
extremely optimist scenarios.

[People murmur]

— Hi. I'm the delegate from
Venezuela,

and when I shared my concerns
about violence and crime

in my country, the delegates
of Germany, Australia, Yemen,

and Paraguay, um, helped me
think of a solution,

so soon, the headline in the
papers in Venezuela will be,

"Mandatory Use of U-Turn
Bullets in All Guns in the
Country."

[Laughter and applause]

[Pedro Reyes] I love my
life.

[laughs]

It's super fun.

You're like a kid, and everybody 
gets to do what you wish.

I mean, in terms of "Oh, I have this one idea. Let's make it." "Yes," and it happens.

It's amazing.

[Cheering]

[soft electronic music]