VALERIE VAN LEERSUM
artist based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
artist based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
In collaboration with the Art Commission for stations, ProRail commissioned a work of art in the passenger subway at Apeldoorn Station. At november 2022 it was festively opened by the regional directors of ProRail and NS.
The four railway lines that converge at Apeldoorn station cross four types of landscape; wet grasslands, forest, heath and meadow. I have walked these areas intensively. Often alone, sometimes with biologists, experts or casual fellow hikers. During these explorations I photographed and collected objects and various organisms that typified the area. Over al dit bezig leven, shows a series of landscape portraits that are reminiscent of fantasy maps of places or islands that do not exist but seem to emerge from a collective memory: strange and familiar at the same time, fueling the fantasy, full of hidden treasures.
“Never before has a work in the railway collection been created after so many hours of wandering, fieldwork and source research. The work of Valerie van Leersum is permeated with an infectious artistic attitude - entirely in the tradition of 'artistic research' - in which she directly and indirectly asks others to be involved with the underlying aim: to look slowly, with an open mind, at the environment in slow motion. take in; then a wonderful world of the here and now unfolds. With pinpricks of imagination she creates mental bridges that take you to another side and offer you a new perspective on a hidden world; concealed, concealed, banished, lost, repressed. But visible to those who slow down. From now on, Apeldoorn station will be the center of the world, a junction of four wind directions, and everything in between, a circle of impressions and discoveries: just walk out of the station, the direction doesn't matter!”
More from this beautiful text, written by Tanja Karreman:
https://www.spoorbeeld.nl/databank/over-al-dit-bezig-leven.
Here you will also find the legend of the work.
Thanks to: Tim Stet, fotografie / Frans van den Born, coördinator Heemtuinwerkgroep ‘de Maten’ / Mariette van Rooij, policy advisor Nature at ProRail.
Passengers subway Station Apeldoorn
Collection ProRail // Bureau Spoorbouwmeester
