Ecto Bag

2024 Installation Commissioned by HEK House of Electronic Arts Basel for Virtual Beauty 2024
A hand with long nails holds up Ecto Bag, a glossy pink womb-shaped handbag veined with silver, against a pale blue sky

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Ecto Bag is a mixed media installation that transforms speculative design into a physical object.

The fictional company Ecto Bag, created by the artist, manufactures artificial wombs in the form of stylish, high-fashion handbags. The work challenges the restrictive nature and normative politics of human reproduction, questioning the dominant ideal of the heteronormative nuclear family.

Its conception is inspired by scientific research, such as ectogenesis (the gestation of embryos in artificial wombs) and in vitro gametogenesis (the creation of egg and sperm cells from ordinary body cells).

Installation view in a dark gallery with parquet floor; Ecto Bag sits on a mirrored plinth in front of a large projection of a glossy pink foetus in an artificial womb
Installation view, As If We Are Safe, Kunsthalle Basel, 2026 · Photo: David Berweger
Installation view: Ecto Bag in a lit wall vitrine between pink wall letters reading 'The future of reproduction is design'
Installation view, Suck My Code, Exhibit Galerie Wien, 2025 · Photo: Vincent Entekhabi
Installation view: Ecto Bag in a clear acrylic case on a mirrored plinth in a pink-lit room with other works
Installation view, Virtual Beauty, Somerset House London, 2025 · Photo: Anne Tetzlaff
A visitor holding a glass of wine leans in to look at Ecto Bag in a glass vitrine on a white plinth
Installation view, Wells of Life, GHB Space Düsseldorf, 2026 · Photo: Florian Geddert
Video still: a glossy pink foetus floating inside a translucent artificial womb with dark red branching veins
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Close-up of tattooed arms embracing a baby against a saturated pink background
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Companion works

A pregnant posthuman avatar in a marbled bodysuit stands in a violet virtual landscape with pastel plants and a heap of glossy blue objects
[Posthuman Wombs] 2022

Details

  • Ecto Bag: 3D-printed PLA, 32 × 38 × 15 cm
  • Video: HD, colour, sound, 3:18 min
  • Display: plinth, dimensions variable

Credits

  • Concept, artistic direction, design, video: Anan Fries
  • Cinematography: Synthtati
  • Light design & assistant cinematography: Dario Caporaso
  • Models: Ronald Berger, Eddington Again, Baby Kiki
  • 3D print: Caroline Barrueco
  • 3D model: Ksti Hu

Shown at

  • Wells of Life, GHB Space Düsseldorf, 2026
  • As If We Are Safe, Kunstkredit Basel-Stadt, Kunsthalle Basel, 2026
  • Suck My Code, Exhibit Galerie Wien, 2025–26
  • Virtual Beauty, Somerset House London, 2025
  • Regionale 25, 2024–25
  • Virtual Beauty, HEK Basel, 2024