Sat 18.10.25
10u00
One Day I Will Make The Onion Cry
Barbara Raes / Beyond the Spoken, Victoria Deluxe & ntgent
One Day I Will Make the Onion Cry
One Day I Will Make the Onion Cry
One Day I Will Make the Onion Cry
One Day I Will Make the Onion Cry
One Day I Will Make the Onion Cry is a unique multidisciplinary project that gives space and form to the grief that accompanies solastalgia, the loss of something not yet lost. Together with visual artist Manu Siebens, Barbara Raes, co-artistic director at NTGent, created a poetic installation around grief already presenting itself although the real goodbye has yet to come.
The artwork was presented for the first time in the fall of 2024 during the seasons opening of NTGent. In October 2025, One Day I Will Make the Onion Cry was shown for two weeks in GUM in Ghent, a museum dedicated to science, research and critical thinking, as part of the festival Dark Weekends. In 2026, the artwork will travel to the city of Liège as part of the commemoration of the devastating floods that caused extensive damage in the region five years before.
As part of One Day I Will Make the Onion Cry, members of the audience can join an one-on-one ritual guided by Barbara Raes. The ritual is designed for anyone who needs to reflect deeply on what still exists but will one day be lost. Like all rituals around the world, it consists of three phases: separation, transition and reintegration. Each phase is given a special and personal interpretation. The ritual ends with live music by artists such as An Pierlé, Farnoosh Khodadadeh and Berlinde Deman. Taking about two hours, it is a profound and healing experience.
During the ritual, participants are invited to donate a tear to an archive of tears that has been kept since 2024. The archive represents the essential aims of the project: making invisible grief visible, and turning individual grief into a collective, shared experience as perhaps the most valuable form of comfort. In letting go and sharing, a space is opened up for hope and new beginnings.
One Day I Will Make the Onion Cry is a creation in the framework of YouTurn, a project by theatre company BERLIN, house artist at NTGent. Raes and Siebens gave the onion machine from BERLINs performance Land's End (2011) a second life.
Downloads
Communication PackageDownload
Biography Barbara RaesDownload
Credits
They joined the ritual and said:
I thought my tears had run dry, but they were just waiting for a place where they could exist
Participant ritualMy tears are now part of something bigger, an archive of grief, of memory, of loss. It comforts me that the mourning I feel has been given such a beautiful place. That idea alone makes me feel lighter, gives me hope in some way
Participant ritualThrough an invisible gate, the ritual reaches straight into your chest and squeezes your heart very lovingly, very carefully, very devotedly, very gently but without hesitation
Participant ritual
Sales & distribution
Floria Lomme
floria.lomme@ntgent.be
+32 (0)472 66 66 79
Communication service
tourcom@ntgent.be
Past performances (9)
- Sun 19.10.25 10u00One Day I Will Make The Onion CryBarbara Raes / Beyond the Spoken, Victoria Deluxe & ntgent
- Mon 20.10.25 09u30One Day I Will Make The Onion CryBarbara Raes / Beyond the Spoken, Victoria Deluxe & ntgent
- Tue 21.10.25 09u30One Day I Will Make The Onion CryBarbara Raes / Beyond the Spoken, Victoria Deluxe & ntgent
- Wed 22.10.25 09u30One Day I Will Make The Onion CryBarbara Raes / Beyond the Spoken, Victoria Deluxe & ntgent
- Thu 23.10.25 09u30One Day I Will Make The Onion CryBarbara Raes / Beyond the Spoken, Victoria Deluxe & ntgent
Also available for programmation
- Sat 27.09.25 — Sat 27.09.25Firestarterntgent, HaConcerts, KOPERGIETERY & partners
- Fri 31.10.25 — Sun 02.11.25Fire, Walk with MeBarbara Raes, Alexandra Broeder & ntgent
NL