sanctum 3D

Conceived & Directed: Jeannette Ginslov
Dancer: Vishanthi Arumugum
Interactive sites: Nathaniel Stern &
Tegan Bristow
Music: Jame Webb
Production Design: Jeannette Ginslov

The stage version of sanctum was first produced and performed as a live interactive dance work for The Eleventh Biennial Symposium on Arts and Technology at The Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology at Connecticut College, USA, February 28 , 2008.

The stage work consists of two sites of interactivity that are activated by the audience: one that elicits text about the act of FGM and the other, images of FGM. A dancer performs in the centre of these two sites bound in a long white cloth, feet tied up with string and gagged with sticks in her mouth. She performs a dance of restriction and struggle.

This video is an attempt at a 3D version. Needs glasses!

Two Screendance works were made after this live performance: sanctum I & II. These can be found on WalkingGusto you tube channel.

The work was inspired by, Desert Flower written by Waris Dirie (1998). This autobiographical account sketches an account of the ongoing ritual of FGM or female gential mutilation, that is now deemed by many western countries, a crime and not an acceptable cultural practice.

In 1993 the WHO organisation estimated that over 150 million young girls had been ìcircumcisedî and despite the practise being banned and outmoded in many North African countries it is still ongoing. The practice has spread across the globe and regardless of attempts by Dirie to speak out against it through the UN as a spokesperson for Womenís Rights, it is still deemed a necessary practice by both men and women alike in many countries.