From Weaponry to Symphony: An Artist Makes Music from Confiscated Guns

Mexican artist Pedro Reyes transformed 6,700 used weapons into an orchestra of musical instruments as an act of protest against gun violence and a firearms industry he says is killing his people.

As part of a project Reyes calls Imagine, he worked with six musicians over several weeks to re-imagine the weapons into objects that could create beautiful sounds. Together, they took the weapons apart and re-welded them into a variety of playable instruments that include wood, strings, and percussion.  

Reyes writes on his website that the process of turning these “agents of death into instruments of life” was painful, albeit personally transformative. “It’s important to consider that many lives were taken with these weapons; as if a sort of exorcism was taking place the music expelled the demons they held, as well as being a requiem for lives lost.”

According to the artist, over the last six years, there have been 80,000 deaths in Mexico due to gun violence. However, Reyes says that the more insidious problem lies with the gun industry; the suppliers who are on an endless circuit of trade shows, the ones who ignore assault weapon bans by continuing to sell them, while counting profit above responsibility, are the ones that need to be legislated. But without a public outcry first, that will never happen.

Reyes’ symphony is his own public outcry.

Visit this website for more photos of various instruments made from guns and assault weapons and a video of musicians performing the John Lennon song ‘Imagine’ on the instruments.

-Shared by Neko and Davey