Arts & International Affairs: 2.3: Autumn/Winter 2017 | Page 33

ON PEDRO REYES’ THE PEOPLE’S UNITED NATIONS (2013–2014)
Figure 3: Exhibition view. Courtesy Queens Museum, New York
The atrium also included the Colloquium, a white sculpture of interlocking marble panels
shaped like a blank cartoon speech-bubble; and Disarm/Clock, a weapon-clock made
from gun parts which made a sound every quarter hour, which Reyes had made earlier
in the context of the project Disarm (2012). These elements remained in the atrium of
the museum until March 30, 2014. The sculpture s were described on the website of the
Queens Museum in the following way:
with their frank embrace of symbolism, these sculptures provide a po-
etic and inspiring backdrop for the pUN convening and representing its
sincere optimism, serious and playful at once, to the Museum visitor
after the event is over (Queens Museum 2013a).
However, by no means should this playfulness be seen as denying the seriousness of the
issues discussed by the project. Rather, as the artist himself explained in an interview, “it
is precisely the lighthearted spirit of play that allows the participants to engage in sub-
jects whose magnitude would otherwise overwhelm us” (UN News Centre 2013). The
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