Aimée Zito Lema
Summer 2011
Aimée Zito Lema (1982) worked in Het Vijfde Seizoen from August up to and including October 2011. She lived there together with her friend Nahuel Blaton. Aimée Zito Lema was born in Amsterdam and raised in Buenos Aires.
Zito Lema is interested in the cross between art and social reality, in her work the emphasis is on ethics, collaboration, marginal groups or political conflicts. Her background, characterized by living in two countries, between dictatorship and democracy, poverty and wealth, is her personal ‘archive’.
During her research in Het Vijfde Seizoen she took an active role by getting personally involved in a certain situation. Cooperation with the patients and participation in their daily therapeutic activities among others sports therapy, drama therapy, music therapy and construction and wood work was the point of focus. She worked with different media like drawings, photographs, performances, films and installations.
Aimée about “THINGS I KNOW FROM SILENCE, THINGS I KNOW BY HEART”:
“Things I know from silence, things I know by heart” refers to knowledge gained by intuition, experience or sense. What can I know about a place? About its history? What can I know about someone else? And about myself in relation to a place or another person?
During my residency in Het Vijfde Seizoen I attempted to come closer to these questions by examining the influence of memory (the past) and learning processes (the future) on the formation of our identity.
Conversations with patients about memories and audio recordings of various group therapy sessions were the starting point of my project. Thus I tried to participate ‘in the life’ of the people of Altrecht as much as possible.
The recordings of voices (stories) of the residents were the theme in a series of short films, in which images of the surroundings - architecture and nature - come together with the memories and experiences of patients.
Aimée Zito Lema studied Arts at ‘EBARY’ (Escuela de Bellas Artes Rogelio Yrurtia) and IUNA (University of Arts Buenos Aires), at De Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and at Wimbledon College (University of the Arts) London. Her work is exhibited in museums and galleries in Europe and Argentina. Zita Lema did a Master ‘Artistic Research’ at De Koninklijke Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Den Haag from 2009 to 2011. During the past years Zito Lema has been rewarded with contributions from FBKVB (Fonds voor Beeldende Kunst Vormgeving een Bouwkunsten) and Het Amsterdamse Fonds voor de Kunst, to develop projects, exhibitions and research. Zito Lema lives and works in Amsterdam and Buenos Aires.
