Pedro Reyes: Disarm
— The Conduit, London

Produced by John Coxon

Featuring:
John Coxon
Rupert Clervaux 
Steve Noble 
Ashley Wales 
Oli Burslem from Yak

Turning illegal firearms confiscated by the Mexican government into intricate musical instruments, internationally acclaimed artist Pedro Reyes created artworks that made agents of death produce songs of life.

This was an extraordinary performance of new music by John Coxon that activated these artworks, played by some of today’s leading musicians.

Against a backdrop of Mexico’s highest ever recorded homicide rate in 2017, the alarming rise of gun crime in the US and in the UK, Reyes’s work moves to act now to change gun culture, while also pushing boundaries in art and appropriation. “It’s important to consider that many lives were taken with these weapons;” says Reyes, “as if a sort of exorcism was taking place, the music expelled the demons they held, as well as being a requiem for the lives lost.”

The evening was organised in collaboration with Wedel Art, with huge thanks to Lisson Gallery for their support.