Label: Lisson Gallery – none
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition
Country: UK
Released: 2013
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Experimental, Free Improvisation
Disarm (27 March – 4 May 2013) at Lisson Gallery is a solo exhibition by Mexican artist Pedro Reyes, comprising mixed-media works and a live musical performance relating to the artist’s ambitious international project in which illegal firearms were used to fabricate musical instruments.
The exhibition at Lisson Gallery includes musical instruments created from firearms, including revolvers, shot-guns and machine-guns, which were crushed by tanks and steamrollers to render them useless. These were offered to the artist by the Mexican government following their confiscation and subsequent public destruction in the city of Ciudad, Juarez.
From the 6,700 destroyed weapons he received from the Mexican Secretary of Defense, Reyes created two groups of instruments which will be exhibited together for the first time at Lisson Gallery. 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.
Reyes has in turn collaborated with producer and musician, John Coxon (Spring Heel Jack, Spiritualized, About Group, Treader) to compose music and produce a record using instruments from the Imagine series. The result is a limited edition vinyl LP featuring Coxon performing alongside six musicians well known on the improvisational scene: Eden Bull, Rupert Clervaux, Beatrice Dillon, Charles Hayward and Ashley Wales. On the opening night of the exhibition they will perform tracks from the album live at Lisson Gallery.
The LP includes a publication that documents the various steps of this expansive project and also features an essay by Jessica Berlanga Taylor on Reyes and an interview with Tina Kukielski, co-curator of the Carnegie International. Copies will be displayed at the gallery throughout the duration of the show. (NM)
Tracklist
A1 Untitled 1:56
A2 Untitled 9:52
A3 Untitled 2:32
A4 Untitled 2:01
A5 Untitled 3:12
A6 Untitled 1:17
B1 Untitled 3:47
B2 Untitled 2:19
B3 Untitled 2:05
B4 Untitled 0:57
B5 Untitled 8:47
B6 Untitled 1:10