Ari Benjamin Meyers

Ari Benjamin Meyers (*1972, USA) lives and works in Berlin. Meyers received his training as a composer and conductor at the Juilliard School, Yale University and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. He became well known in the context of the visual and performative arts as musical director and conductor of the group exhibition “Il Tempo del Postino”, co-curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno, which premiered at the 2007 Manchester International Festival and was presented two years later during Art Basel. Trading the concert format for that of the exhibition, his works as an artist – such as “Kunsthalle for Music” (2018), “Symphony 80” (with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra), and “Solo for Ayumi” (both 2017) – explore structures and processes that redefine the performative, social, and time-based nature of music. His diverse practice includes musical performances for the stage and exhibition spaces as well as three operas, including a commission for the Semperoper Dresden, and a ballet for the Paris Opera.

Meyers has realized multiple joint projects in form of performances, sound installations and concerts, and has collaborated with artists such as Tino Sehgal, Anri Sala and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, as well as with bands such as The Residents, Einstürzende Neubauten and Chicks on Speed.

During the 2022 Theatertreffen, Meyers presented the work “Forecast House” together with set designer Eva Veronica Born in the garden of Haus der Berliner Festspiele. The set – a construction kit originally produced for the play “Forecast” that Meyers had developed for Volksbühne Berlin and intended to be assembled and disassembled into a house during the performance – was used as Theatertreffen’s Festival Centre, where Meyer’s composition from the play was presented as an audio installation. After Theatertreffen, the “Forecast House" was taken over by the haubrok foundation and was shown in other contexts and institutions.