The exploited uterus – a multidisciplinary installation
- Design
In her graduation project for the Moving Image bachelor’s programme at AKI ArtEZ Academy of Art & Design, Lucia Conde Arenas investigates the exploitation of the uterus across history, biology, and systems of power. Through film, sculpture, and organic material, she creates an installation that challenges dominant narratives around reproduction, labour, and life itself.
Reclaiming the uterus through film and material
“My graduation project is about the abuse of the uterus,” Lucia explains. “Looking specifically at the materials of metals and plants through the lens of film, I explored spaces like a mine - a place where minerals are extracted from the uterus of Mother Earth. That’s how mining was originally viewed.” She draws links between these extractive systems: “I also looked at anatomical theatres, with their histories of uterus dissection to uncover the mysterious origins of life, and at the uterus within a capitalist labour system. As an object, a mechanical object of reproduction.”
Blurring life and matter
The installation features a SCOBY, a living, growing mass of bacterial cultures. “This is called The Mother. It’s constantly producing babies. It’s something I have to care for and feed with tea every week.” Alongside her metal castings and an anatomical theatre, this living organism helps evoke three symbolic spaces: “a mine, the anatomical theatre, and a witch’s kitchen. I want to create a space where something is brewing and growing, were a monstrous fetus is growing.”
In this monstrosity, I blur the boundaries between natural and artificial, between life and death.”
Unexpected materials, new directions
“I didn’t come here expecting to work with metal. To forge or to cast. To even do things I’d never heard of before. But you find subjects that really interest you. And I think it’s incredible to be in a space where unexpected discoveries can happen.”
Curious how film, research and material intersect in new ways?
