One day I’m gonna make the onion cry #9
Bela Vista, Brazil 2020
Bodily Response
Invited by Desiree Nault, M:ST Performative Arts Festival, Calgary, Canada
Duration: 24 minutes
Photographs by Monika Deimling


Context:
The performance marked the final part of the work cycle “One day I’m gonna make the onion cry” and was realised in a remote location in Bela Vista, Brazil.
During the first global lockdown, Monika Deimling and I found ourselves stranded in Brazil for nearly three months while on an artistic research trip. This unexpected isolation became a time of creative adaptation and led to the making of the site-specific visual art film “A COW WON’T EAT FOXES WHEN THE GRASS IS DRY”.
With the sudden cancellation of art events worldwide, the M:ST Performative Art Festival in Calgary, Canada, responded by developing “Bodily Response” – a live-streamed performance series exploring the impact of pandemic-related movement restrictions, physical distancing, and project cancellations on artists across the globe. M:ST (Mountain Standard Time Performative Art) is a vital platform dedicated to contemporary performative practices, supporting experimental, site-specific, and socially engaged work. The festival has a long history of fostering critical dialogue and innovation within performance art.
Due to limited internet access at my location in Brazil, the performance was pre-recorded and later presented as part of “Bodily Response”, allowing it to reach an audience despite the constraints of the time.









Description of actions:
A collage of performance images and sounds is created by executing the following actions with selected material.
– Holding a roof tile in front of the face and smashing it with a hammer. [The roof tile is breaking with each stroke into pieces.]
– Sitting on a wooden stool, holding a silver plate in front of the face and gently moving it. [At some points the sun strongly reflects in the silver plate.]
– Shaking a wooden box filled with red hibiscus fruits. [The fruits are falling out of the box.]
– Sitting in a window frame and rubbing the palms of the hands on my eyes. [After a long rub the eyes turn red.]
– Moving the whole body in the window frame.
– Placing an onion on the stool; sitting in the window frame – one foot on the onion – and blowing into a silver pot. [In the pot is a mixture of water and soap, blowing into the pot generates foam that appears with each blow.]
– Holding the white onion with a white cloth and rubbing with the other hand red pimento seeds over my face and chest in a straight line.
– Holding the white cloth with both hands in front of the face; blowing gently on the cloth. [The cloth is gently moving back and forth.]
– Taking ashes in both hands, placing the head into the ashes and breathe strongly. [With each breath ash clouds appear.]
– Taking three blue parrots feathers in front of the face; creating a squeaking sound while moving the feathers.
– Placing the hibiscus fruits and the onion in a birds cage and holding it for a longer while.
– Climbing through the window and presenting a wooden dove of peace.
– Closing the window.
You can see the video that was screened as part of Bodily response here