Ralph Lemon and Kevin Beasley

Ralph Lemon (b. 1952 in Cincinnati, USA) and Kevin Beasley (b. 1985 in Lynchburg, USA) have maintained an ongoing artistic dialogue for around fifteen years. Lemon, who emerged from New York’s downtown scene, works at the intersections of choreography, writing, drawing, video and installation. At the centre of his practice is the body as an archive: how are history, memory, belonging and displacement stored in and passed on through the body? Beasley combines performance, sound and sculpture. His materials include clothing, sneakers and durags, whose traces of use and history are preserved in the finished objects. He also understands sound as a material medium that can be experienced physically. Their collaboration rests on a shared belief that the body and sound can serve as historical material.

For ‘Residuum’, they are developing a multichannel sound and film installation that extends throughout the Müller building. Temporary walls are being removed to reveal its open architecture once more. Sound, singing and music spread across four floors, connecting the different levels; two film installations by Lemon frame the presentation on the ground floor and the top floor. The sound installation is based on the album ‘Tell it anyway’ (2026) and looks back at their shared work around ‘Rant’ and ‘Rant redux’. On 12 and 13 December 2026, a new cycle of performances featuring Darrell Jones, Lysis (Ley), April Matthis, Samita Sinha and Okwui Okpokwasili will enter into dialogue with the installation and the architecture. An artist talk with Kevin Beasley will take place on 19 November. Curated by Hendrik Folkerts, the exhibition asks what remains of a live moment and how something new can emerge from its traces.