During the opening, we will put mourning and loss at the centre. We explore the meaning of rituals in mourning with stories, short readings and a ‘Loss Soup’ where we reflect on the flavours of mourning. Space will be made for the many forms of loss: a person, yourself, a relationship, health or a long-held wish. So all loss experiences are welcome! 

Babet te Winkel (Verlieskunst) and Miek Crouzen (Praktijk De Basis) will guide the evening. Irene Stengs will give a mini-lecture on the need for collective mourning rituals. She is senior researcher in ethnology at the Meertens Institute and associate professor of ‘anthropology of ritual and popular culture’.  

The meal soup is made by Xuelin Yang and Vittoria Chimisso. They are cooks of the cultural non profit Cafe Averechts in Utrecht. Café Averechts is a café run entirely by volunteers, for 40 years now. The profits go to good causes. 

Programme schedule of the opening: 
17.00 - 17.40: Interactive opening Verliesmuur
17.40 - 18.00: Mini lecture on collective rituals by Irene Stengs
18.00 - 18.45: Soup ritual: the flavours of mourning
18.50 - 19.00: Moments of silence

Practical information
We ask you to bring an object that symbolises your loss. The meal soup is vegan and gluten-free. Participation is free, but registration is required. Start: 17:00, walk-in from 16:30. location: VOX-POP, Binnengasthuisstraat 9.

Babet te Winkel (b. 1991) is the founder of the grief platform Verlieskunst. She specialises in creating new language, images and rituals to make space for mourning. She draws inspiration from nature, cycles and the seasons, mysticism and ancient stories. Her work takes shape in online courses, the ritual Verliesdiner, the art installation Verliesmuur and connecting grief circles. She is also a holistic masseur and body-focused bereavement counsellor.

She made her debut in November 2023 with her book ‘Seeing in the Dark’ in which she creates new language of grief. After the death of her mother, when she was just 20, Babet realised that she could not describe her feelings and experiences with existing words. She needed a language with which to unravel the experience of grief, to get beyond the empty words. Those words turned out to be as personal as they were universal.

Miek Crouzen is a psychologist and has been counselling people in her practice De Basis since 2016, in everything to do with being human. Having herself endured a long period of mourning for a broken relationship, Miek called into being a counselling programme for all types of loss and associated mourning. Under the name ‘the Meantime’, she offers appropriate guidance in the time you spend, when loss causes you to leave the Old, but the New is not yet in sight.

Irene Stengs is senior researcher in ethnology at the Meertens Institute and associate professor of ‘anthropology of ritual and popular culture’ at the Free University. Her research focuses in particular on the social significance of rituals, the dynamics of contemporary commemorative culture and the relationship between heritage making and identity politics. 

Jasper Albinus (b. 1997) is a writer, performer and at home in poetry, spoken word and theatre. Our colonial heritage, the price tag of death and characters longing for a new beginning recur regularly. Jasper performs on various stages such as Oerol, Lowlands and Writers Unlimited and is affiliated with spoken word platform Poetry Circle and literary production house Wintertuin.

Other programmes of Echoes of Loss

November 7 - Sculpture workshop - make an exvoto from plaster 
November 12: A programme on grief & immigration - Film screening and talk 'Nour, my father and I' 
November 20: Mourning what never happened - a creative workshop about dealing with dissapointments 
November 28: Telling stories of loss and grief - a Close Up night, curated by our student programme makers
December 12: Mourning the climate - a programme in co-creation with our student-resident Sam Kailani on new forms of religion