Aimée Zito Lema

As the first artist in residence at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Aimée Zito Lema is especially interested in the process of restauration, as a particular relationship with the past. Can we mend historical rifts with the same consideration we invest in restoring damaged objects? Zito Lema asked the archivists if they could find Roy Taylor’s photographs of the 1983 occupation of the museum. For several weeks, a large group of artists camped in front of Rembrandt’s famous painting The Night Watch in protest against plans to end a national support programme for the visual arts. Zito Lema regards the occupation as an act of concern and care for culture, something worth fighting for. She used her EKWC residency to reproduce the artists’ sleeping bags and blankets, which in turn talk about protecting the body. Working with ceramics for the first time, she soon found out that this material too demands care.