Four Liverpool Musicians (Bette, Budgie, Ken, Louisa), 2018, by Ari Benjamin Meyers was the artist’s first film-based work, initially created for the 10th Liverpool Biennial. Its inclusion in (number of) weeks later marks the first presentation of the original three-channel version since its 2018 debut. The installation presents film portraits of four musicians of different generations whose biographies are closely intertwined with Liverpool’s musical and industrial history. Filmed at the Playhouse theatre in Liverpool, Bette Bright (Deaf School), Budgie (Siouxsie and the Banshees, Big in Japan), Ken Owen (Carcass), and Louisa Roach (She Drew The Gun) perform a series of compositions written by Meyers specifically for each musician. The pieces form a dialogue where listening and silence are as important as their varied musical expressions; the language of music is here a powerful unifying force, its non-verbal qualities conveyed to viewers through the immersive, physical format of the installation.

Ari Benjamin Meyers (b. 1972 in New York, USA) is a Berlin-based artist and composer. He trained in music, composition, and conducting at the Juilliard School in New York, Yale University in New Haven, and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. In his artistic practice, he explores structures and processes that define and redefine the performative and social nature of music and challenge the traditional boundaries between performer and audience. Often working in collaboration with other artists, musicians, and communities, Meyers’ projects take various forms to explore gestures, hierarchies, and settings in musical performance, from classical concerts to contemporary visual art contexts and, more recently, large scale public rituals. His work has been shown at international institutions and numerous festivals such as Kunstverein Braunschweig (2025), Museum Abteiberg (2024/2022), Fondazione In Between Art Film (2024), MUDAM, Luxembourg (2023), Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein (2023), Berliner Festspiele (2023), Festival d’Avignon (2023), Hamburger Kunsthalle (2022), MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon (2021), 7th Beaufort Triennial, Flanders (2021), Urbane Künste Ruhr (2021), Neues Museum Nürnberg (2020), Punta della Dogana, Venice (2019). Since 2024, he has been a professor at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.

Doors open at 7 pm. The installation will be accessible for around 3.5 hours.

Organized by Clara Maria Blasius

(number of) weeks later is supported by The Gingko Foundation.