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.
Co-founder of When Site Lost the Plot()
Residencies
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    		    		2022–2023Guest Artist [Pressing Matter] in Residence at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2019Artist in Residence at Goethe Institute, Marseille 
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    		    		2018–2019Artist in Residence at Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (link)() 
Selected Exhibitions
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    		    		202525th SONGEUN Art Award, SONGEUN, Seoul (link)() (upcoming) 
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    		    		2025–2027UNFINISHED PASTS, Return, keep, or…?, Wereldmuseum Amsterdam (link)()(current) 
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    		    		2024This nameless sites, K-Arts space, Seoul (link)() 
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    		    		2024Branching Streams. Sketches of Kinship, Research exhibition at Musée Théodore Monod d’art africain, Biennale de Dakar, Dakar (link)() 
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    		    		2024350,000 Leaks, Wereldmuseum Amsterdam X JaJaJaNeNeNe, Amsterdam (link)() (link)() 
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    		    		2024Remix, Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle (link)() 
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    		    		2023Holding Poison, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, (link)() (link)() 
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    		    		2023Creating the Commons, VU Art Science gallery, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2022–2023When Things are Beings, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2022In the Pause of a Gesture there might be an Echo#3, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2022Depend on me, puntWG, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2021In the pause of a gesture there might be an echo #2, puntWG, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2021Domestic Concerns, Matjoe Raum für Kunst, Köln (link)() 
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    		    		2021Unquiet Objects, Oregon Center for Contemporary Art, Portland (link)() 
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    		    		20202020-An Improvisation (to Contemplate), Rozenstraat - a rose is a rose is a rose, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2020To Pluto and back, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (solo) (link)() 
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    		    		2020The plot flipped the eternality, Art Oost, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2020The Unknown Artist, Center for Contemporary Art and Culture (PNCA), Portland (link)() 
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    		    		2019Elsewheres Within Here, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2019La Grande Transformation, La Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille (link)() 
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    		    		2019Landscape with Bear, de Appel, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2019Open studios, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (link)() 
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    		    		2019Design im Kunstverein, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln 
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    		    		2018Inside out, forecast, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin (link)() 
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    		    		2018Contextile, Bienale de arte textil contempornea, Guimares (link)() 
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    		    		2017Studio ZZM, Zuiderseemuseum, Einkuizen 
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    		    		2016Dream Factory, Vertical Gallery, Plug in City, Eindhoven (link)() 
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    		    		2014Das unangreifbare war noch nie so meins, Galerie stadt Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen (link)() 
Events
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    		    		2025In the Flesh. Metabolised by Toxic Times, Lecture performance, Framer framed (upcoming) 
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    		    		2025Online Screening, Artist in chain, Arebyte (link)() 
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    		    		2025Talk, Harvest Festival of the Lumbung Practice, Sandberg Instituut, de Appel & HKU MAFA (link)() 
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    		    		2025Artist talk, Rijksakademie X Unfinished Pasts, Wereldmuseum Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2025Artist talk, After Unfinished pasts, Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2025Lecture, How can we stretch the limits of art institutions?, Life After Rietveld and Sandberg, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2025Lecture performance, Regenerate!, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (link)() 
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    		    		2024Artist talk, with Rachael Rakes, Hyewon Lee, Kyurim Kim, K-Arts space, Seoul 
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    		    		2024Artist talk, with Michael Tedja and Sibyl Heijnen, Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle (link)() 
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    		    		2024Lecture, Leakage conference, TU Dresden, Dresden (link)() 
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    		    		2023Artist talk, Displaced things and horizon, Luca School of Arts, Ghent 
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    		    		2023Artist talk, Artistic Research: Sharing Methods and Practices, with Yazan Khalili, Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2023Artist talk, Inclusive Knowledge, with Luisa Schneider, Saskia Duijs, Vrij universiteit amsterdam, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2023Artist talk, Repair Lab: Fostering cross-border conversation, de Appel, Amsterdam 
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    		    		2023Artist talk, NON NATIVE NATIVE, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (link()) 
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    		    		2023Artist talk, Beyond Return, moderated by Katja Kwastek, Déjà VU Festival, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2023Artist talk, A Prelude to the Material Conditions of Re(in)situations together with Ola Hassanain, Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba, Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2023Artist talk and Film screening, Meet the masters, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2023Artist talk, ALL THIRD with Lucy Cotter and Aram Lee, DasArts, Master, Academie voor Theater en Dans, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2022Lecture, Taking Care, Re|Creating Kinship in the Ethnographic Museum in Europe, Research center for material culture, Leiden (link)() 
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    		    		2021–2022Presentation, The Whole Life Congress Berlin, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (link)() 
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    		    		2021Lecture, When Site Lost the Plot: Siteless Specificity, MA Fine Arts, Korea National University of Arts, Seoul (read here) 
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    		    		2021Performance, Submersion, Synthetic Body, puntWG, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2021Workshops, Depend on Me, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2021Artist talk, The lives of objects: from domesticity to resource extraction, MA GEO-Design, Design Academy Eindhoven, Eindhoven 
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    		    		2021Curation, Parasite dinner, fanfare(), M4gastatelier(), Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2020Artist talk, Online Panel: Prevention is Better than Hate, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2020Online 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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    		    		2019Performance, Workshops, Tropical, Objects, Turns, New alphabet school, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2019Presentation, Artist at m4 gastatelier, m4 gastatelier, Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2019Screening, 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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    		    		2019Presentation, Curation, Tales of the Haunting victims, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (link)() 
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    		    		2019Artist Talk, Something or other, School of Design, London College of Communication, London (link)() 
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    		    		2018Inlab, Magical Riso 2018: Monumental Riso, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (link)() 
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    		    		2018Artist talk, The creative blur Symposium, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MKG), Hamburg (link)() 
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    		    		2018Workshop, Presentation, Fantastic Forgeries, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam (link) 
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    		    		2018Artist talk, Performance Making and the Archive, IIT Bombay, Mumbai (link)() 
Text / Essay / Publication
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    		    		2025Toxic Materialities, Studies in Art and Materiality, Brill (upcoming) 
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    		    		2024Translucent trans-corporeality, Troubles dans les collections.(link)() 
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    		    		2024Sonic Fabulations, Project initiated from Whole life in Haus der Kulturen Welt(2021-2022), Publication in book and Vynle records (upcoming) 
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    		    		2023After Objects, No.5: Learning From Ancestors, Epistemic Restitution and Rematriation, Errant Journal (read here) 
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    		    		2022When Things Are Beings, Proposals for the Museum Collection, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (read here)() 
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    		    		2022Professional Amateur, Depend on me (link)(), (link)() 
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    		    		2022Inside Out, Performance Making and the Archive by Ashutosh Potdar, Sharmistha Saha, Published by Routledge (link)() 
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    		    		2020The Untouchables, suns and stars, CDCM-Collective Domain of Cultural Memory (read here)() 
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    		    		2020The Museum of Tomorrow, Frame (read here) 
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    		    		2019La grande transformation, Heritage Contact Zone, Marseille (read here)() 
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    		    		2019From Props to Objects, Landscape With Bear, de Appel, Amsterdam (read here) 
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    		    		2019Post Ghost Bust, Charles Nyples Lab, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (read here) 
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    		    		2019From Pluto to Pyongyang and Back, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (read here) 
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    		    		2018THEA SEGALL.(Un)edited_ , Witte de With (current Melly), Rotterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2017The sequence of transformation, Design Academy Eindhoven, Eindhoven (read here) 
Reviews / publicity
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    		    		2025Kijken met de ogen van de wind, metropolis M (read here)() 
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    		    		2024De museumcollectie in de mix, metropolis M (read here)() 
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    		    		2022On 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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    		    		2021Objecthood: a conversation with lucy cotter by Jess Nickel, Art&About (read here)() 
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    		    		2020The Unknown Exhibition, Oregon Artwatch (read here)() 
Teaching
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    		    		2024–ongoingTutor at Social Design, Design Academy Eindhoven (MA), Eindhoven (link)() 
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    		    		2024–ongoingTutor at VAV—Moving Image, Gerrit Rietveld Academie (BA), Amsterdam (link)() 
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    		    		2021–2022Guest tutor at Disarming Design, Sandberg Institute (MA), Amsterdam (link)() 
Recognitions and Grants
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    		    		2026Voucher Biënnale van Venetië, Mondriaan Fonds 
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    		    		2025Kunstenaar Project Grant, Mondriaan Fonds 
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    		    		2025The Netherlands Embassy - DMZ Docs Documentary Co-production Funds 
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    		    		2025Voucher Liverpool Biennial, Mondriaan Fonds 
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    		    		2024–2028Kunstenaar Basis, Mondriaan Fonds 
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    		    		2022–2023Pressing Matter, international research program, financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) 
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    		    		2022Kunstenaar Project Grant, Mondriaan Fonds 
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    		    		2022Projectsubsidie professionele kunst, AFK Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst 
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    		    		2021Kunstenaar Project Grant, Mondriaan Fonds 
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    		    		2021Research & Experiment, NLFILMFONDS Netherlands Film Fund 
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    		    		2021Immerse\Interact Grant, Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie 
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    		    		2021Kunst presentatie internationaal, Mondriaan Fonds 
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    		    		2021Tijl Fonds, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds 
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    		    		2020Kunstenaar grant, Wim de Haan Fonds 
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    		    		2019Professionele kunst, AFK Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst 
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    		    		2019Project grant, HCZ Heritage Contact Zone 
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    		    		2019Goethe Institute Residency Program 
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    		    		2018–2019International Residency Grant, ARKO Arts Council Korea 
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    		    		2017Nomination, Gijs Bakker Prijs 
Education
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    		    		2015–2017Master of Contextual Design, Design Academy Eindhoven, Eindhoven (Cum Laude) 
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    		    		2013–2015Diplom of Fine Arts, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, Stuttgart (incomplete) 
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    		    		2008–2012Bachelor of Fine Arts, Korea National University of Arts, Seoul