The Troubadour will travel through the Ruhr Area from Dortmund to Duisburg, from performance to performance, from encounter to encounter. Ari Benjamin Meyers will present a musical experiment in which conversations, hospitality and shared experiences give rise to an ever-expanding repertoire of songs, texts and stories. What is heard, lived and exchanged in one place is carried to the next. Meyers sees the idea of continuous presence as central to the work: travelling, resting, rehearsing and performing as an uninterrupted artistic process.

The performance will take place in August and September at various locations across the Ruhr Area – exact locations, dates and times will be announced shortly.

The Troubadour by Ari Benjamin Meyers is an Urbane Künste Ruhr and Manifesta 16 Ruhr co-production and is part of the exhibition Uncanny Shifts by Urbane Künste Ruhr. Uncanny Shifts takes place from the 22nd of August until the 4th of October 2026 around the Dortmund main train station.

Further information can be found on the Urbane Künste Ruhr website.

About Ari Benjamin Meyers

Ari Benjamin Meyers is an artist and composer whose practice redefines the structures and processes that shape the performative, social and ephemeral nature of music. Several of his works, focus on the public and civic sphere, incorporating large-scale communal rituals. More recently, Meyers has also created works that engage directly with environmental issues and climate change. Ari Benjamin Meyers lives and works in Berlin and currently teaches as a professor of sculpture at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.