Our Story
What we choose to do with what remains.
The Reincarnation Factory began with loss, but it is not a story only about loss. It is about what we choose to do with what remains.
Imagination and realisation
We are Xavier and Leen. We have shared most of our lives, and throughout those years art, music, books and people have always found their way into our home and into the projects we created together.
We are very different, and that difference shapes The Reincarnation Factory.
Xavier, who works under the name Reinout Zeeger, is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and musician. His practice moves between photography, text, music, installation and large-scale conceptual projects. His work often begins with a question, an image or a fragment of language and develops through encounters with other artists and disciplines.
Leen spent most of her professional life in business and leadership. A former EY partner with extensive experience in audit and executive management, she brings structure to ambitious ideas. Within The Reincarnation Factory, she is responsible for financial and organisational development, including budgeting, fundraising, sponsorship, grant applications and people management.
Imagination and realisation have always been the two sides of what we do together.
A before and an after
The Reincarnation Factory would probably not have existed without our child Aero(nwen), who died in August 2024 at the age of eighteen. Aero was intelligent, sensitive, complex, funny and endlessly curious. Music, philosophy and language mattered deeply, as did questions about identity, freedom and what it means to be human.
Losing Aero divided our lives into a before and an after. In time, we began to ask what could be created from the love, memories and questions that remained.
The Reincarnation Factory became one of our answers: an independent foundation and creative platform established in Aero’s memory. It is not intended as a monument, but as a working environment in which artists and musicians can experiment, unexpected collaborations can develop and difficult ideas can be given the time and support they need.
The meaning of the name
The name reflects the meeting of two very different concepts. “Reincarnation” is used as an artistic metaphor: a photograph may become an album cover, a text may become music, an encounter may lead to an installation, and an existing work may acquire new meaning in another context. “Factory” refers to the practical work required to make those things happen.
TRF initiates and supports exhibitions, recordings, publications and long-term international collaborations. Through the foundation and social initiatives such as Kleine Zon, it also aims to create opportunities for people who may need practical support, resources or new connections.
Aero remains part of the foundation’s origin and history. Its future, however, will be shaped by the artists, musicians and other people who contribute to its projects—and by the work they create together.