Jump to main content (press Enter)Jump to the footer (press Enter)
Urbane Künste Ruhr

Breadcrumbs

  1. Home
  2. Calendar
  3. Performance

The Troubadour

© Daniel Sadrowksi

10.8. – 10.9.26

Address

Various locations in the Ruhr region, including Dortmund city centre

Open in Maps

The Troubadour, performed by the songwriter and actress Riah Knight, is touring the Ruhr region for a month – from Bochum to Dortmund, from Duisburg to Essen. Accompanied by her assistant, the Juggler, the Troubadour character meets people, swaps stories, wanders about and finds her way around on public transport whilst searching for places to linger. Along the way, Riah Knight writes and performs her own songs and combines the music that Ari Benjamin Meyers composed in advance for the project with new material. Inspired by the wandering ballad singers of the Middle Ages, this project is both a long-term performance and a social experiment. What is heard, experienced and exchanged in one place will be carried forward to the next. How is this supposedly ‘unknown traveller’ treated in every town she visits? What kind of music will her journey through the region produce?

Ari Benjamin Meyers (lives and works in Berlin) is an artist and composer who develops structures and processes that redefine the performative, social and ephemeral nature of music. He trained to be a conductor and composer at the Juilliard School, Yale University and the Peabody Institute. Since then, his work has been presented at numerous institutions, festivals and biennals worldwide. He is currently Professor of Sculpture at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. 

Riah Knight (born 1996) is a Romani-British artist and lives in Berlin. Her interdisciplinary practice includes acting, music, writing and dramaturgy.


Performance The Troubadour: Riah Knight
Assistant / The Juggler: Christian Löffel

The Troubadour by Ari Benjamin Meyers is a co-production by Urbane Künste Ruhr and Manifesta 16 Ruhr as part of the exhibition Uncanny Shifts, presented by Urbane Künste Ruhr during Ruhrtriennale 2026. 

Related Events

  • Open Event

    © Yusuke Mori, Photo: Erdem Akkaya

    So., 23.8.26, 16:30–19 hView

    Meet Kein schöner Archiv,  KDM and The Troubadour

  • Open Event

    © Yusuke Mori, Photo: Erdem Akkaya

    Do., 10.9.26, 19–21 hView

    The Troubadour’s Farewell

  • Open Event

    © Yusuke Mori, Photo: Erdem Akkaya

    Sa., 19.9.26, 19–21 hView

    Troubadour, The Epilogue

Related exhibitions

  • Open Event

    © Heinrich Holtgreve

    Sa., 22.8. – So., 4.10.26View

    Uncanny Shifts

Bergkamen

Begleitet wird die Grand Snail Tour von Künstler*innen aus dem Bereich Literatur, Fotografie und Zeichnung, die zeitgleich zum Aufenthalt des Tourmobils, Eindrücke und Reflexionen aus jeweils derselben Stadt sammeln und diese sie visuell oder literarisch ins Bild setzen. So entsteht ein Paratext zur 3-jährigen Tour, der in Form einer Reisechronik, ein Kaleidoskop an Geschichten, Verbindungen, Momentaufnahmen in den 53 Städten der Region als Gleichzeitigkeiten und Ungleichzeitigkeiten zur Grand Snail Tour sichtbar werden lässt.

Bergkamen von Jochen Lempert

Bergkamen 7. August 2025

1a Bergarbeitersiedlung hinter zeitgenössischem Sichtschutz
1b Zeitliche Abgrenzung im Wasserpark: vormittags badende Stockenten — nachmittags Menschen mit Hunden

2a Eine kleine Population Stadttauben: Indikator für geringe menschliche Aktivität im öffentlichen Raum. Wenige Menschen bedeuten wenig Nahrung für Stadttauben.
2b Stadttauben waren einst Felsentauben — und schätzen felsige Strukturen als Brutplatz.

3a Feinstrahl —  nordamerikanischer Neophyt, der sich sich in den letzten Jahren stark verbreitet hat.
3b Russischer Bär — eine südliche Art an der Nordgrenze seines Areals — die in großer Zahl auf der Halde Großes Holz fliegt.

4a Wuchsformen des Efeus: ein Profiteur des CO2 Anstiegs
4b Bananenstaude: Zeichen eines Klimawandels

Stop

Open "Bergkamen"
Model of the former residential tower in Bergkamen, part of the artwork “Neustadt” by Julius von Bismarck and Marta Dyachenko.

© Henning Rogge

7.8.25, 17–21 h

Narrating in Bergkamen

Bergkamen
View

Artist

Open Artsit

© Stiftung Sitterwerk

Jochen Lempert

Jochen Lempert (*1958) studied biology. Between 1979 and 1989, he was a member of the experimental film group Schmelzdahin, which explored the combination of chemical processes and celluloid film.

View