Valerie van Leersum creates images and installations that incorporate several mediums, using objects, text, audio, collages and photography. At times the images are standalones; other times they are part of an installation or a “multitych”. Van Leersum’s work moves between ‘factual’ history on the one hand, and the subjectively experienced, on the other. Using a specific place or history, she 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. In conducting her research, she works together with experts, residents of the area, and colleagues.

Since 2012, Van Leersum has been working on “The Archive of the In-between”. This archive consists of a collection of works about transition, migration and repurposing. It is a work-in-progress, inspired by people who are looking for new ground versus ground in search of a new purpose.