Seized and Decommissioned Firearms Become Musical Instruments in Mexico NTDTV
go to original March 7, 2013

Mexican artist Pedro Reyes is converting instruments of death into instruments of music, with a new project that is transforming firearms into guitars, flutes and drums.

Reyes has transformed some 6,700 firearms seized and decommissioned in Ciudad Juarez, once Mexico's most violent city, into a collection of musical instruments which he terms "imagine".

Reyes has sawed off gun barrels to different lengths in order for them to sound like marimbas, while he has turned other pistol parts into cymbals.

Reyes said he wanted to create something good out all the bloodshed and insecurity that have plagued Mexico in recent years.

"The idea is to transform an agent of death into an agent of life. Why? Because weapons make people not want to go out into the street, hide and we have experienced an abandonment of public spaces in Mexico which makes our cities very unsafe. The same transformation we are making with these weapons is a transformation we would like to see in society," says Reyes.

Until recently Ciudad Juarez was the murder capital of the world, and a symbol of the Mexican government's struggle to reign in warring drug cartels and criminal gangs.

Now new Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has vowed to reduce the violence that soared after his predecessor Felipe Calderon launched an all out assault on drug cartels.

Listen to a performance of an "Imagine" cover of the eponymous Beatles song in the video above. It doesn't take much imagination to hear that some of the scrappy instruments sound remarkably like their more traditional peers. (Pedro Reyes)

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