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SHORT BIO

the landscape is written in me

Valerie van Leersum (1973) works as an artist, designer and explorer. In her work she focusses on the relationship between landscape and human identity. How landscapes are given shape by people and vice versa.

For this she creates images and installations using objects, text, audio, collages and photography. Sometimes the images stand alone, in other cases they are part of an installation or polyptych. The work moves between the 'factual' history on the one hand and the subjective experience on the other. For many of the works she collaborates with scientists and other professionals from different backgrounds.

Starting with an artistic research, she is aiming for a poetic abstraction which invites the viewer to move between personal experience as well as the larger context of a phenomenon.

Valerie van Leersum exhibited her work at art and exhibition spaces, realizes site specific installations and participated in various artist in residence programs al over the world. The last few years she cooperates among others with The Parliament of Things in the Embassy of the North see, CBK Zuid-Oost, Het Zuiderzeemuseum, Kibii Foundation, Stroud Valley Art space, Veem-house and Oerol.

How does the ground, the ever changing landscape relate to the concept of home? How do we overcome the dualism between nature and culture? How can we deepen our relationship with our natural environment? These questions form the basis for the work in which she actively invites the viewer to meet, exchange and connect.

Keywords: abstractions, connections, poetical, site specific, conceptual. anthropology, archives, borders, , environment, etymology, exploration, geography, grapics, humanity, identity, landscape, maps, nature, processes, philosophy, rituals, the earth, travelling, science, systems, natural phenomena.

ABOUT

Valerie van Leersum works out of her studio in an artists' community in northern Amsterdam. She creates images and installations that incorporate several mediums. Her work could be read as a quest for the meaning of the concept of "home", using objects, text, audio, collages and photography. At times her images are standalone; other times they are part of an installation or a "multitych". Her work moves between 'factual' history on the one hand, and the subjectively experienced on the other, between documentary and the imagined.

Using a specific place or history, van Leersum searches for the imperceptible, linking the present with its history in order to find the holes in its story; the friction between fact and fiction. The earth, rootedness, the house and gravity stand thus opposed to migration, the nomadic and swarm dynamics. In that field of tension, she creates encounters, exchanges and connections.

van Leersum has been working on "The Archive of the Inbetween" since 2012. This archive consists of a collection of works about transition, migration and repurposing. It is a work-in-progress based on the history of places and people on the move. Inspired by people who are looking for new ground versus ground in search of a new purpose, she researches stories and locations.

"The research and history are like a broken vase for me. When you glue the shards together, there's always a piece missing," she says. van Leersum uses that space to make art that, although neither fictional nor intuitive, create a link between the present and the future. These can arise from researching, for example, a journey, an area in development, a building that has disappeared, or human migrations, within which van Leersum focuses on the moment in which "something is not exactly here, not exactly there", exploring the borders between the reasonable and a recognizable reality and the dream or the unrecognizable.

The archive also serves another purpose, as a repository and meeting point for objects derived from her research. At each location, van Leersum seeks out an element that can be used to create an interaction with the surroundings and underscore another approach to the archive.

NEWS

UPCOMING

10/04/2025 – 03/10/ 2025
Vu art science gallery

2024/2025
Trajectum project

NOW

Artikel Bodem
Vaktijdschrift voor duurzaam bodembeheer

Publication BinnenAards
Art paper

Artikel Musepost
https://www.musework.nl/nl/page/12868/musepost-11/

PAST

2024
Daar waar de Vissen Dol worden
Into the Great Wide Open

2024
Vier essays Mister Motley
https://www.mistermotley.nl/authors/valerie-van-leersum//

2023-2024
Artist in residence
Kunstfort Vijfhuizen

Over al dit bezig leven
tien werken in collectie van ProRail/Bureau spoorbouwmeester
Reizigerstunnel, Station Apledoorn

16/04/22 - 21/08/22
Nature Talks
Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle

22/05/22 - 22/10/22
Binnen-Buiten
Emile van Dorenmuseum, Genk

10/06/22 - 20/06/22
Daar gezien van Hier
Oerol festival, Terschelling

22/04/22 - 01/05/22
Designfest
Group exhibition, Designmuseum, Gent

24/06/22 - 14/08/22
Group exhibition, Gallerie de Kapberg, Egmond a/d Hoef

12/03/22 – 10/04/22
Octopus garden
Group exhibition, Vishal Haarlem

25/10/21 – 26/04/22
Wat een Beek Weet
n.a.v artist in residence Stiemerlab/Stad Genk

10/11/20 - 08/03/21
Licht, Lucht en Zicht
Stadskunstenaar, Over ‘t IJ, Amsterdam

04/04/20 - 26/06/20 Uit< > zicht Group exhibition, Provinciehuis Haarlem

08/12/19 - 04/03/20 Kunsttraject Amsterdam, Zeeheldenbuurt

21/05/2020 - 24/05/20
This Art Fair, Kromhouthal, Amsterdam
(canceled)

04/04/20 - 26/06/20
Uit< > zicht
Group exhibition, Provinciehuis Haarlem
(canceled)

08/12/19 - 04/03/20
Kunsttraject Amsterdam, Zeeheldenbuurt

02/11/19 - 08/12/19
Exhibition AIR in CBK ZuidOost, Amsterdam

14/11/19 - 17/11/19
Ambassade van de Noordzee, Het HEM, Zaandam
Bijdrage Social Capital WEMEME, TAAK, Amsterdam
Publicatie Mister Motley, NDSM

01/10/18 - 09/12/18
Artist in residence CBK Zuid-Oost

16/09/18 - 16/10/18
Moengo festival -triënnale Moengo, Suriname

15/06/18 - 24/06/18
Set design Bijna vergeten vergezichten - Oerol, Terschelling

11/06/18 - 24/10/18
Wijkmaker festival Over 't IJ, Amsterdam

08/16 - 09/18
Columns Parbode magazine, Mi egie Moengo

03/05/18 - 13/05/18
Places at drift, exhibition and artist in residence SVA, Stroud England

01/07/2017
Internationale kunstroute Noord Groningen 2017

01/01/17 - 30/03/2017
Artist in residence
Tembe Arts Studio, Moengo, Suriname

27/12/2016 - 30/12/2016
This art fair
Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam

01/09/2016 - 11/09/2016
In between control and veneration
Hoogheemraadschap Hollands Noorderkwartier, Heerhugowaard

08/07/2016 - 18/07/2016
Inbetween Control and Veneration

Zuiderzee museum presents at
Over 't IJ Festival, Amsterdam

12/02/2016 - 23/02/2016
Art for Refugees
Opening 12/02 18.00 tot 21.00 uur Cloud Galery
Prinsengracht 276, Amsterdam

Interview ARTE TV

European Culture Magazine

Metropolis reports artistic and intellectual life in Europe

Episode Amsterdam- With Nicole Beutler, Rune Peitersen,
Marije Gertenbach and Valerie van Leersum

27/11/15 - 06/12/15
Tentoonstelling winners Summershow
New Dakota- Francis Broeske Projects, Amsterdam

27/10/15
Debat, lezing Framer framed
Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam

10/10/15 - 01/11/15
Nieuwe leden tentoonstelling
Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam

21/06/15 - 01/08/15
Summershow 2015
New Dakota- Francis Broeske Projects, Amsterdam

09/05/15 - 31/05/15
Hangen doe je toch
Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam

02/07/15 - 12/07/15
Mapping cities on a drift; NDSM
Over 't IJ festival, Amsterdam

10/04/14 - 20/04/14
On a Drift, Leerling meester
Kunstpodium T, Tilburg/
Extrapool, Nijmegen

14/06/13 - 24/06/13
Ergens tussen vliegen en vallen
Oerol festival, Terschelling

08/02/13 - 12/02/13
Re-Rotterdam
Rotterdam

21/10/12 - 01/12/12
Project Oostbroek
Platform 57, Den-Haag

27/04/12 - 28/05/12
Kunst in openbare ruimte
Museum Zonnehof, Amersfoort

07/06/11 - 11/11/11
Textiel Biënnale 2011
Museum Rijswijk