Baby Reni Biennale

Irene Ha received a contribution to develop Baby Reni Biennale: a biennial project. The project is a multidisciplinary experience in which performance, collage, scultpure, clothing and paintings come together in a large body of work as a total installation. Themes such as the search for/in identity, working with communities and fair production are explored in her work partly through collaborations with Atelier de Kunstvlieg, a group of hobby mothers from Arnhem and electonic music label Seedlink+.

Operating as Baby Reni, Irene has built her own creative universe. Seeking a community in the digital realm - a community composed of DIY mothers, seamstresses, DJs and designers - her work is based on systemic collaborations of a generation raised on the Internet. In her strategic deployment of cuteness as an aesthetic category, Ha tackles prejudices about her Southeast Asian heritage and grapples with the unresolved contradictions of the contemporary era while challenging the norms and values of the contemporary (fashion) system. Her work is characterized by an excess of stimuli, information, colors and textures in which found objects, designed garments, and traditional (Vietnamese) archival pieces come together in large installations, allowing these pieces to be seen in an interdisciplinary context.