Pedro Reyes Quotes.
I definitely believe that art is the best way to produce social change.
A weapon kills people and makes people in cities dominated by fear. But if you turn it into an instrument, it’s like social gold. It brings people together and you build trust.
People feel that building a rocket for Mars is an exciting project, but if you see the refugees around the world and the millions of homeless people, then for me it’s insulting that people are fantasizing about leaving planet Earth and going wherever.
Often much of my work is very optimistic, or solution-based. I have always believed that art is a tool for transformation, and something that should give people some kind of agency.
Architects often have a mindset where you solve a problem, so you have a set of needs that you have to address. Often I feel that my projects have to have concrete applications.
I have always been very interested in the issue of drugs, because as much as illegal drugs are prosecuted, if you think of it as a health issue, the real killer are prescription drugs, like over prescribing of opioids.
In the end, a gun is an instrument to make someone surrender to your will or die, and music is exactly the opposite – it’s seductive and invitational.
