Past political activism and contemporary concerns about nuclear armament is what brought Diego Rivera together with modern artist Pedro Reyes.
By: Guillermo Ayala Alanis.
The use of art as a promoter of peace and a generator of awareness of the movement in defense of the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons were some of the similarities that sculptor Pedro Reyes found in his work with Diego Rivera, the famous Mexican muralist and pioneer in the fight against nuclear disarmament. |SPANISH | ｜JAPANESE｜
The exhibition Atomic Amnesia by sculptor and activist, Pedro Reyes, was presented at the Diego Rivera Anahuacalli Museum in Mexico City. Twenty sculptures were presented with which the artist invited the audience to social reflection and paid tribute to those who fought and continue to fight for a world free of the nuclear threat.
Built and decorated with symbolism and art of pre-Hispanic cultures, the Anahuacalli Museum was the ideal place to present Reyes sculptures because it also houses a sketch of a work by Diego Rivera entitled: Pesadilla de guerra, sueño de paz. Fantasía realista (Nightmare of war, dream of peace. Realistic fantasy) (1952), in which the famed muralist portrayed his and his wife, Frida Kahlo, activism in favor of peace and the extinction of nuclear weapons by making one of the first pictorial representations of the atomic bomb.
“The art of Pedro Reyes and Diego Rivera, has to do with this conjugation that through art we can generate messages or communicative ideas that transform the mentality of society for the sake of peace, for the sake of a better society and remember that in our past we can improve our present and of course improve our future”, commented Rodolfo Cadena Labrada, Head of Media at the Diego Rivera Anahuacalli Museum, in an interview for INPS Japan. Meanwhile, one of the visitors, Joselyn Trujillo, highlighted that with the exhibition “one is left with a little more awareness…. and that it reminds us that this exists and that it is there and maybe we could do something about it”.
Among the works exhibited by Pedro Reyes was Zero Nukes, an inflatable sculpture, nine meters high, representing a nuclear mushroom whose dome highlights the strong message of “zero nuclear weapons”. The prayer is written in the eight languages of the countries that possess this type of arsenal (China, France, India, Israel North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, United Kingdom and United States). “I particularly liked the big globe… I think that nuclear weapons are a very big problem that we have to solve”, exclaimed Santiago, another visitor to the exhibition.
The exhibition also displays a series of black and white banners replicating the phrase “Zero Nuclear Weapons” in different languages such as Spanish and Japanese.
Pax Atomica (2023), a sculpture that was first presented to the public, became another work that attracted attention. The figure is a bird cage that has the exact shape and measurements of Little Boy, the nuclear bomb that was used to devastate the city of Hiroshima and its population the 6th of August, 1945. “It impresses you because you cannot conceive that a material object of such dimensions could have caused so much damage and by making this symbiosis with a bird cage is a little bit the message that Pedro Reyes wants to communicate of where is our peace or our freedom if it is caged,” said Rodolfo Cadena Labrada, Head of Media of the Diego Rivera Anahuacalli Museum.
Also exhibited was Tregua (2024), a sculpture made of white marble and volcanic enclosure in which a hand resembles the shape of a white dove.
The piece symbolizes the hand as an allegory of work that, transmuted into a bird, refers to the effort required to bring peace to the world.
Mexico’s historic diplomatic work in favor of the proscription of nuclear weapons was also present in the exhibition. The work Vestido (Dress) integrated anti-nuclear slogans and graphics on clothing that function as portable banners and recalled the Treaty of Tlatelolco, a document that guarantees that no nuclear weapons will be manufactured, tested, stored or circulated in Latin America. The document, drafted in 1967 and promoted by the Mexican Nobel Peace Prize winner (1982), Alfonso García Robles, served as an example for the creation of other Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones in the world.
In addition to his sculptures, Pedro Reyes also sought to transmit to visitors part of his role and work as an activist by presenting videos on issues related to nuclear weapons and their dangers. At various points in the exhibition Atomic Amnesia, there are video projections that expose and denounce some of the effects that nuclear testing has had in areas such as the South Pacific islands and New Mexico. Also, there is another that denounces the companies, banks and investment funds that put their capital in projects related to the development and creation of nuclear weapons.
When presenting the exhibition in August of last year, Pedro Reyes commented that he has been involved in the anti-nuclear movement for a short time; however, his talent has led him to present his work in various places in Mexico and the United States, in addition to working with international organizations such as ICAN. He said, having understood that art can serve as an entry point to knowledge. “I have been in this world of anti-nuclear organizations for about four years and there are about 500 people in the world, it is a tiny cause because it is not very popular… it is more popular to have issues of gender, ecology or other things, energy, social justice, etcetera… However, it is still a very serious problem because trillions of dollars are being invested in renewing nuclear arsenals. The United States alone is investing 1.8 trillion dollars in renewing its nuclear arsenal and no one knows about this and no one covers it, hence the theme of the amnesia exhibition”.
Pedro Reyes’ exhibition was on display between September 2024 and January 2025 at the Anahuacalli Museum, located south of Mexico City. However, the sketch of the mural Pesadilla de guerra, sueño de paz. Fantasía realista is a permanent piece.
It should be remembered that the mural is a lost work. Presumably it disappeared in the 1950´s, after Rivera gave the work to the Chinese government in 1957 to be exhibited in a tour of countries of the former communist bloc. The only thing that remains of the work is the nine-meter-long sketch that is exhibited at the Anahuacalli Museum.
Since its presentation, it has been a controversial and censorship-attempted work due to its content, which shows the political and social conflicts of its time when the Cold War was just beginning. Figures such as Iósif Stalin and Mao Zedong appear, as well as caricatured representations of individuals linked to the United Kingdom, the United States and France.
Also the sketch shows an allusion to the martyrs of the Korean War and a graphic representation of the atomic bomb detonated in the Bikini Islands.
Image: Sketch of the mural Pesadilla de guerra, sueño de paz. Fantasía realista.. Part of the representation of the nuclear explosion and Korean War.
The lower part of the mural sketch shows Frida Kahlo in a wheelchair and other activists collecting signatures for the Stockholm appeal, the first campaign to ban atomic weapons. Both Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo were heavily involved in the first worldwide campaign to ban nuclear weapons, in which artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Pablo Neruda also participated.
Credit: Guillermo Ayala Alanis.