Born 1986 in Seoul (KR)
Working and living in Amsterdam (NL)
aram@leearam.com
CV
Aram Lee was born in Seoul and lives and works in Amsterdam. As an artist, her research-driven practice revolves around reinterpreting materials found within institutions, often seeking to relocate their role and purpose through performative events, film and video installations. Sometimes taking up processes of performative action with the public, her practice shapes the way objects are described and circulated. Her artworks challenge diasporic amnesia and release impure, spectral and false fictions from the institutions to enable the dissolution of (cultural) predominance and visualize new structures.
Residencies
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2022–2023
Guest Artist [Pressing Matter] in Residence at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam
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2019
Artist in Residence at Goethe Institute, Marseille
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2018–2019
Artist in Residence at Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht
Selected Exhibitions
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2025
Pressing matter, Wereldmuseum, Amsterdam (upcoming)
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2024
This nameless sites, K-Arts space, Seoul (link)() (current)
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2024
Branching Streams. Sketches of Kinship. Research exhibition at Musée Théodore Monod d’art africain, Biennale de Dakar, Dakar (link)()
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2024
350,000 Leaks, Wereldmuseum, Amsterdam (link)() (link)()
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2024
Remix, Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle (link)()
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2023
Holding Poison, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, (link)() (link)()
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2023
Creating the Commons, VU Art Science gallery, Amsterdam (link)()
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2022–2023
When Things are Beings, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam (link)()
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2022
In the Pause of a Gesture there might be an Echo#3, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam (link)()
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2022
Depend on me, puntWG, Amsterdam (link)()
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2021
In the pause of a gesture there might be an echo #2, puntWG, Amsterdam (link)()
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2021
Domestic Concerns, Matjoe Raum für Kunst, Köln (link)()
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2021
Unquiet Objects, Oregon Center for Contemporary Art, Portland (link)()
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2020
2020-An Improvisation (to Contemplate), Rozenstraat - a rose is a rose is a rose, Amsterdam (link)()
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2020
To Pluto and back, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (solo) (link)()
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2020
The plot flipped the eternality, Art Oost, Amsterdam (link)()
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2020
The Unknown Artist, Center for Contemporary Art and Culture (PNCA), Portland (link)()
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2019
Elsewheres Within Here, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (link)()
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2019
La Grande Transformation, La Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille (link)()
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2019
Landscape with Bear, de Appel, Amsterdam (link)()
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2019
Open studios, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (link)()
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2019
Design im Kunstverein, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln
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2018
Inside out, forecast, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin (link)()
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2018
Contextile, Bienale de arte textil contempornea, Guimares (link)()
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2017
Studio ZZM, Zuiderseemuseum, Einkuizen
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2016
Dream Factory, Vertical Gallery, Plug in City, Eindhoven (link)()
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2014
Das unangreifbare war noch nie so meins, Galerie stadt Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen (link)()
Events
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2025
Lecture performance, Regenerate!, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (upcoming)
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2024
Artist talk, with Rachael Rakes, Hyewon Lee, Kyurim Kim, K-Arts space, Seoul
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2024
Artist talk, with Michael Tedja and Sibyl Heijnen, Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle (link)()
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2024
Presentation, Leakage conference, TU Dresden, Dresden (link)()
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2023
Artist talk, Displaced things and horizon, Luca School of Arts, Ghent
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2023
Artist talk, Artistic Research: Sharing Methods and Practices, with Yazan Khalili, Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, Amsterdam (link)()
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2023
Artist talk, Inclusive Knowledge, with Luisa Schneider, Saskia Duijs, Vrij universiteit amsterdam, Amsterdam (link)()
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2023
Artist talk, Repair Lab: Fostering cross-border conversation, de Appel, Amsterdam
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2023
Artist talk, NON NATIVE NATIVE, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (link())
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2023
Artist talk, Beyond Return, moderated by Katja Kwastek, Déjà VU Festival, Amsterdam (link)()
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2023
Artist talk, A Prelude to the Material Conditions of Re(in)situations together with Ola Hassanain, Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba, Invited guest - Wayne Modest, Quinsy Gario, Nuraini Juliastuti, Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam (link)()
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2023
Artist talk and Film screening, Meet the masters, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (link)()
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2023
Artist talk, ALL THIRD with Lucy Cotter and Aram Lee, DasArts, Master, Academie voor Theater en Dans, Amsterdam (link)()
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2022
Lecture, Taking Care, Re|Creating Kinship in the Ethnographic Museum in Europe, Research center for material culture, Leiden (link)()
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2021–2022
Presentation, The Whole Life Congress Berlin, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (link)()
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2021
Lecture, When Site Lost the Plot: Siteless Specificity, MA Fine Arts, Korea National University of Arts, Seoul (read here)
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2021
Performance, Submersion, Synthetic Body, puntWG, Amsterdam (link)()
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2021
Workshops, Depend on Me, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (link)()
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2021
Artist talk, The lives of objects: from domesticity to resource extraction, MA GEO-Design, Design Academy Eindhoven, Eindhoven
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2021
Curation, Parasite dinner, fanfare(), M4gastatelier(), Amsterdam (link)()
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2020
Artist talk, Online Panel: Prevention is Better than Hate, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (link)()
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2020
Online Presentation In the pause of a gesture there might be an echo#1, Suns & Stars, Collective Domain in Cultural Memory (link)()
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2019
Performance, Workshops, Tropical, Objects, Turns, New alphabet school, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (link)()
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2019
Presentation, Artist at m4 gastatelier, m4 gastatelier, Amsterdam (link)()
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2019
Screening, Performance, Granny’s Ghost Stories, Lumière Cinema, Maastricht (link)()
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2019
(UN-)LEARNING PLACE, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (link)()
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2019
Presentation, Curation, Tales of the Haunting victims, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (link)()
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2019
Artist Talk, Something or other, School of Design, London College of Communication, London (link)()
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2018
Inlab Participation, Magical Riso 2018: Monumental Riso, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (link)()
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2018
Artist talk, The creative blur Symposium, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MKG), Hamburg (link)()
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2018
Workshop, Presentation, Fantastic Forgeries, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam (link)
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2018
Artist talk, Performance Making and the Archive, IIT Bombay, Mumbai (link)()
Text / Essay / Publication
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2024
Translucent trans-corporeality, A conversation between Aram Lee and Lotte Arndt on Lee’s experimental film X-Hale, Troubles dans les collections. (link)()
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2024
Sonic Fabulations, Project initiated from Whole life in Haus der Kulturen Welt(2021-2022), Publication in book and Vynle records (upcoming)
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2023
After Objects, No.5: Learning From Ancestors, Epistemic Restitution and Rematriation, Errant Journal (read here)
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2022
Professional Amateur, Depend on me (link)(), (link)()
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2022
Inside Out, Performance Making and the Archive by Ashutosh Potdar, Sharmistha Saha, Published by Routledge (link)()
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2020
The Untouchables, suns and stars, CDCM-Collective Domain of Cultural Memory (read here)()
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2020
The Museum of Tomorrow, Frame (read here)
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2019
La grande transformation, Heritage Contact Zone, Marseille (read here)()
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2019
From Props to Objects, Landscape With Bear, de Appel, Amsterdam (read here)
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2019
Post Ghost Bust, Charles Nyples Lab, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (read here)
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2019
From Pluto to Pyongyang and Back, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (read here)
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2018
THEA SEGALL.(Un)edited_ , Witte de With (current Melly), Rotterdam (link)()
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2017
The sequence of transformation, Design Academy Eindhoven, Eindhoven (read here)
Reviews / publicity
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2024
De museumcollectie in de mix, Metropolis M (read here)()
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2022
On Things and Beings: The Affordances of Objects and Ways of Knowing by Amanda Pinatih and Britte Sloothaak, Stedelijk Studies (read here)()
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2021
Objecthood: a conversation with lucy cotter by Jess Nickel, Art&About (read here)()
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2020
The Unknown Exhibition, Oregon Artwatch (read here)()
Teaching
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2024–ongoing
Tutor at Social Design, Design Academy Eindhoven (MA), Eindhoven (link)()
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2024–ongoing
Tutor at VAV—Moving Image, Gerrit Rietveld Academie (BA), Amsterdam (link)()
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2021–2022
Guest tutor at Disarming Design, Sandberg Institute (MA), Amsterdam (link)()
Recognitions and Grants
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2024–2028
Kunstenaar Basis, Mondriaan Fonds
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2022–2023
Pressing Matter, international research program, financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO)
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2022
Kunstenaar Project Grant, Mondriaan Fonds
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2022
Projectsubsidie professionele kunst, AFK Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst
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2021
Kunstenaar Project Grant, Mondriaan Fonds
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2021
Research & Experiment, NLFILMFONDS Netherlands Film Fund
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2021
Immerse\Interact Grant, Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie
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2021
Kunst presentatie internationaal, Mondriaan Fonds
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2021
Tijl Fonds, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds
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2020
Kunstenaar grant, Wim de Haan Fonds
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2019
Professionele kunst, AFK Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst
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2019
Project grant, HCZ Heritage Contact Zone
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2019
Goethe Institute Residency Program
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2018–2019
International Residency Grant, ARKO Arts Council Korea
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2017
Nomination, Gijs Bakker Prijs
Education
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2015–2017
Master of Contextual Design, Design Academy Eindhoven, Eindhoven (Cum Laude)
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2014–2015
Diploma of Fine Arts, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, Stuttgart (incomplete)
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2008–2012
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Korea National University of Arts, Seoul