The interactive web documentary The Space We Hold is a direct provocation to audiences to bear witness to the testimonies of three former “comfort women” who were among the 200,000 girls and young women kidnapped and forced into military sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Some 70 years after their imprisonment in so-called “comfort stations,” the three “grandmothers” – Grandma Gil in South Korea, Grandma Cao in China, and Grandma Adela in the Philippines – are now among the world’s oldest living survivors of militarized sexual violence. After decades of living in silence and shame about their past, they courageously agree to share their stories with those who are willing to listen.

Demanding the user’s attention throughout their intimate first-hand accounts, the experience guides the user from a solitary act of witnessing to become part of a collective, networked response to the grandmothers. In a world where rape continues to be used as a weapon of war, The Space We Hold provides a unique window into the challenges of reconciliation and what it means to bear witness to testimonies of sexual violence in a digital age.