Poor unfortunate girls

Duration: approximately 40 minutes
Location: Magdalen Laundrie, Dublin, Ireland, 2009
Photo: Laura Gallagher, James P. Kinsella, Stefanie Seibold

Performance participants: Veridiana Zurita, Seda Manavoglu, Barbara Philipp, Eva Schippers and the girls from the neighborhood.

Poor unfortunate girls were often young women and children mostly coming from rural Ireland who were brought to Dublin, knowingly and unknowingly for prostitution by their parents during the period 1850 - 1925. Shortly after that period, the Catholic Church insisted on "cleaning" the neighborhood (at that time Monto district) from its notorious red-light district. The "Magdalene Laundries" were set up with the help of the Legion of Mary, on the same premises with mostly the same women, where they had to work without payment and were practically imprisoned and enslaved. *

"The skipping game/performance, also known as "elastics"[1] is our homage to these girls. It is a play that was never played in Monto by these young girls and for us is a play that we have forgotten. This performance is also an attempt to recall the way and the rules how this play should be played"

* Thanks to James P. Kinsella, who introduced us with the historical background of former Monto district.

[1] “This game is also known as Elastics. Two people are the “enders” and stand inside the loop of elastic. They stretch the elastic into a rectangle shape by standing with their feet slightly apart. To start with the elastic should be at ankle height. The jumper then has to perform different hops and jumps, jumps in and around and on the elastic. If the jumper is successful in completing the jumps the height of the elastic is raised to the knees, then the thighs, then the waist!”