Here Is Where We Meet | Aimée Zito Lema, 2021

Argentine-Dutch artist Aimée Zito Lema delved into the archives of the Oude Kerk. Interested in moments in history when people resisted, two events in the Oude Kerk caught her eye. The iconoclasm, which took place in the Oude Kerk on 23 August 1566, and the installation of a red window by artist Giorgio Andreotta Calò in the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, where a lengthy court case on 17 March 2020 and a ruling by the Council of State, caused long-standing opposition. The traces of both conflicts formed the basic material for Zito Lema's new work, which consisted of photography, sculptures, textile works, poetry, and an installation with basins.

The imagery of the installation (construction lamps, scaffolding) was reminiscent of restoration work going on forever in the church, symbolising of both change and resisting change. You saw water basins with photos and building elements, you heard poems being spoken, and wandering through the church you came across a number of sculptures incorporating photos on paper. Two elaborate textile works hung in the high choir. All these elements together reflected on how memory works for an individual and for a group.

A small presentation of work by Argentinian artist León Ferrari (1920-2013) took place, to which the work of Aimée Zito Lema connects. She grew up with his work and revisited his work during the first lockdown. Throughout her research for this exhibition, questions about the relationship between image and language were in the context of resistance. And so this new parallel with his work caught her eye. With his poems, collages and even a letter to the pope, Ferrari warned against a "cruelty intimately mixed with the kindness that covers it. The artist's personal life, relationship to religion and geopolitical developments of his time are recognisable in the selected works.