Arts & International Affairs: 2.3: Autumn/Winter 2017 | Page 37

ON PEDRO REYES’ THE PEOPLE’S UNITED NATIONS (2013–2014)
bining references to the UN’s mission (to maintain and sustain understanding among
different peoples) and to new and yet-to-be-regulated forms of warfare (the reference
to the drone) suggested the shortcomings of the organisation to face emerging global
challenges. Finally, I must mention the redesigned UN flag, which implicitly opposed
the focus on the northern hemisphere of the official image. This is why, despite the art-
ist’s statement (mentioned earlier), it is difficult not to see Reyes’ decision to combine
traditional and experimental decision-making techniques as an indirect criticism of the
UN. Indeed, the performance implicitly asked a question about the ideal form that the
organisation would take if it were explicitly designed to fulfil its mission: building un-
derstanding and responding to global challenges in light of the long-term interests of the
global population.
Figure 4: View of the performance. Courtesy Queens Museum, New York.
In this context, it is crucial to mention that the performance included individuals who,
whether in representation of the countries from which they had immigrated or with fam-
ily connections to the member state that they represented within pUN, lived in New
York (see Figure 4). This suggests that some of them may have had American citizenship.
In any case, the fact that most participants lived b eyond the countries that they repre-
sented in the context of pUN demonstrated the insufficiency of the framework of the
nation state to reflect mobility fluxes.
This tension leads me to an essay by philosopher Étienne Balibar (2016), in which he
argues, influenced by Derrida, that the figure of the citizen is instituted in her naming as
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