Tearless

The pain and isolation of post–Korean War ‘comfort women’ are conjured in this haunting 360-degree VR work.

Following the Korean War, an average of 25,000 US soldiers per year resided in South Korea’s US military bases. To accommodate them, the Korean and US governments founded 96 ‘camp towns’ that, among other amenities, were furnished with brothels – staffed by around a million ‘comfort women’. Tearless recreates a place known as ‘Monkey House’, a detainment centre built in the 70s to quarantine Korean comfort women who had developed sexually transmitted infections. Blending experimental documentary and immersive narrative storytelling, this VR experience heartbreakingly depicts a single day within the complex.

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How to access MIFF XR

• 10–16 August: in person at ACMI’s Swinburne Studio (12–6pm, free – no booking required)
• 5–28 August: from your home via the MIFF XR Gallery