User:Estudiopedroreyes/Pedro Reyes

Pedro Reyes (born 1972 Mexico City) is an Mexican artist. He uses sculpture, architecture, video, performance and participation. His works aims to increase individual or collective agency in social, environmental or educational situations.

Works
After studying Architecture, Reyes founded "Torre De Los Vientos", "Atlas Innovacion Ciudadana" and "The Urban Genome Project".

Palas por Pistolas
One of Reyes most notable works is “Palas por Pistolas”. It aims to show how “an agent of death can become and agent of life”. Palas started in Culican, a city in western Mexico with an extraordinarily high number of deaths by handgun. Reyes, in collaboration with the Culiacán Botanical Garden, invited people to exchange firearms for food stamps. The firearms were crushed by a steamroller, melted and remoulded into 1,527 gardening tools. These shovels have been distributed to a number of art institutions and public schools where adults and children engage in the action of planting 1527 trees. Tree plantings have taken place at the Vancouver Art Gallery (2008),San Francisco Art Institute (2008) Maison Rouge, Paris (2008), Lyon Biennial (2009), Marfa, Texas (2010), Denver, Colorado (2010)

Baby Marx
Baby Marx first started as Reyes’ contribution to the 2008 Yokohama Triennale and then as a Project for the CCA Kitakyushu. Curator Akiko Miyake and puppet master Takumi Ota worked with Reyes to create a series of puppets and a trailer which were exhibited in a traveling show in Japan. Mexican producers Moises Cosio and Alejandro Saevich founders of Detalle Films became interested in producing the first episode that would be come a TV series. (ref) The pilot was shot in 2009 and in 2010 it became a full length feature film. Reyes and Detalle Films have worked for two and half years on the ongoing project and Baby Marx has gained recognition since being exhibited at the Walker Art Center. The exhibition documents the life span of Baby Marx from its inception as a seven minute trailer to a feature film, including real time rehearsals and film-making for the documentary of Baby Marx, the handmade puppets and library set.

Sanatorium
Inspired by the city dwellers increasing demand for therapy due to high stress and hectic lifestyles, Sanatorium provides a temporary refuge by offering mini-therapeutic sessions for the general public. Brought to Brooklyn in 2011 with the Guggenheim's support, Sanatorium is a utopian clinic of topical treatments for those inner-city afflictions we are all too familiar with: stress, loneliness and hyper-stimulation. . Through "therapy" one gets to play and consider self. The cure is in the process, powered by what the individual is willing to give and unload. All 16 treatments are based on traditional methods of expression or respected forms of perception changing programming. The project has been a great success with New Yorkers and can be seen at the Documenta13 event held in Kassel, Germany, in 2012.

Exhibitions
Reyes has exhibited both individual and collaborative projects in institutions throughout the world including the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; San Francisco Art Institute; Serpentine Gallery, London; Center for Contemporary Art, Kitakyushu, Japan; Aspen Art Museum; Reina Sofia, Madrid; South London Gallery; Yvon Lambert Gallery, New York and Paris; Jumex Collection, Mexico City; P.S.1, New York; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Shanghai Biennale; Seattle Art Museum; Reykjavik Art Museum; and the Venice Biennale. In 2011 The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis will host Reyes’ “Baby Marx Project”

Individual Exhibitions (selection)
2011        	        	Babymarx. The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. SANATORIUM, Guggenheim Museum, NY.

2009        	        	Pedro Reyes, Center for Contemporary Art Kitakyushu, Japan.

2008       	        	        47 undertakings, Bass Museum of Art. Miami. Caractères Mobiles, Galería Yvon Lambert, Paris. Conflict Resolution, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco.

2007        	        	Vehiculo de Pasajeros a Propulsión Humana, Galería Heinrich Erhardt, Madrid. Principles of Social Topology, Galería Yvon Lambert, New York

2006        	        	Ad usum: To be Used, Carpenter Center at Harvard University, Cambridge MA. Reciclon, Aspen Art Museum, Colorado.

2005        	        	Dream Digestor, Arnolfini, Bristol U.K.

2004        	        	Nuevas Terapias Grupales, Galería Enrique Guerrero, Mexico

2002        	        	Nomenclatura Arquímica, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico City

2000        	        	Jardines Colgantes, La Torre de los Vientos, Mexico City

Group Shows and Commissions (Selection)
2011 Evento, pour une Re-evolution Urbaine. Bordeaux Biennale, France. Festival of Ideas for a New City. New Museum, NY We are all Astronauts. Universe Richard Buckminster Fuller reflected in contemporary art. Marta Herford. Alemania.

2010 Bienale of the Americas, Denver Colorado. Nuevas adquisiciones, MUSAC. España. In Lieu of Unity, Ballroom Marfa, Texas.

2010 Diseño Regenerativo, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City.

2009 1989, The end of the history or the beginning of the future? Kunsthalle Wien

2009 Lyon Biennale. Lyon, France.

2008 Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama

2008 Expected/Unexpected, Maison Rouge, Paris

2008 MashUp, USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa

2008 Prospect 1 Biennial, New Orleans

2008 Art Basel Projects, Basel.

2008 Experiment Marathon II, Reykjiavik Art Museum

2008 The Tree: From the Sublime to the Social, Vancouver Art Gallery

2008 Tlatelolco, The New Museum NY

2007 Principio de Incertidumbre, Forum de las Culturas, Monterrey

2007 Viva Mexico, Zacheta Gallery, Warsow

2007 Experiment Marathon I, Serpentine Gallery, London

2007 Viva la Muerte!, Kunsthalle Wein, Vienna.

2007 Everstill/Siempretodavía, Fundación Federico García Lorca Granada

2007 Escultura Social, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

2007 Elephant Cementery. Artists Space. NY.

2007 Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle Art Museum.

2007 Busan Biennale, South Korea.

2007 Habitat / Variations Bâtiment d’art contemporain, Genève. – Casa

Reviews and Criticism
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/06/03/nyregion/AP-US-NYC-Silent-Spots.html?_r=2&ref=aponline

Quotes
If something is dying, becoming rotten and smelly, I think there is a chance to make a compost in which this vast catalog of solutions can be mixed in an entirely new way,