The Troubadour

10.8. – 10.9.26

Various locations in the Ruhr region, including Dortmund city centre

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.