Work from the Collection

Reproductive Exile

Artist: Lucy Beech
Date: 2018
Medium: Video
Dimensions: 29 min 50
Collection: Lafayette anticipations - Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin
Reproductive Exile tells the fictional tale of a woman involved in a cross-border assisted reproductive technology programme. While highlighting the sexism inherent in biomedical research, this looped film is characterised by the trap of an endless journey revealing the protagonist’s dependence on a complex network of invisible female bodies—human and non-human—that work, care for, and enable her reproductive journey. These bodies are invisibly linked through the production and sharing of animal and human sex hormones essential to reproductive technologies. The film was shot in the Czech Republic, where the lack of legislation on surrogacy offers a range of possibilities to all kinds of would-be parents who travel to the country, driven by the various social, political, and economic forces accompanying the fertility industry boom. The story takes place in a fictitious international private clinic built on the site of a former public sanatorium. There the protagonist meets Eve (short for Evatar), a 3D representation of the female reproductive system.

Exhibition

Le centre ne peut tenir
Lafayette Anticipations - Fondation d'entreprise Galeries Lafayette, Paris (France)
from 20 juin 2018 to 09 septembre 2018