Ari Benjamin Meyers: Tacet

Tacet, from Latin tacere, is a playing instruction in music. If it appears in a score, the instrumentalist or singer is required to pause during the marked interval – to remain silent.

Absence, silence and the idiosyncratic power of imagination and memory are performed in the first institutional solo exhibition of the US-American artist and composer – Ari Benjamin Meyers – in Germany. In Meyers’ enactment, the visitor enters a staged situation rather than an exhibition space. She or he inevitably becomes part of the scenario invoked in Tacet. Meyers – who in his work explores, transgresses and shifts the boundaries between the disciplines of music and art – combines in the Kasseler Kunstverein aspects of immersive theater with questions of contemporary art and music.

The installation refers to a selection of performances by the artist, all of which are missing the corresponding characteristics of music, sound and movement. Two voices eventually break through the silence in Tacet: the voice of the peculiar archivist performed by art historian Dr. Jörn Schafaff, and that of the visitor her- or himself.

Curated by Judith Waldmann.

The exhibition at Kasseler Kunstverein will be followed by the extensive solo exhibition “Ari Benjamin Meyers – In Concert” (March 1– April 14, 2019) at the OGR – Officine Grandi Riparazioni, Turin, Italy.

The exhibition in Turin is curated by Valentina Lacinio and Judith Waldmann.
A catalogue by Corraini Edizioni, Milan, Italy, will be published on the occasion of the project of the two institutions.

Visit the exhibition on Kasseler Kunstverein’s website