Lili Sels VanBavaerts (birth name Ellen Vanderstraeten), is a multidisciplinary performer based in Belgium, Ghent.

 

She is fascinated by the multiformity of textiles, everyday materials, and minor gestures associated with care. She creates installations—tactile habitats for focused, sensory-rich, and interactive performances.

​

Lili often works through long-term engagement, relationally weaving her practice in situ in places such as hospital gardens, libraries, cafeterias, small parks, and public squares. She collaborates closely with other artists from various disciplines, as well as with patients, staff, local residents, and curious passersby.

 

In her current research, she explores lightness in her textile creations, allowing them to become more dynamic—moving shelters, moving houses, a second skin. Creations in which we do not have to be afraid of stillness, and can experience the authenticity of ourselves in our own body.

 

At present, she leads two collaborative projects—Spa for Spirits and Huskrooms—supported by Flanders State of the Arts, along with partnerships at the intersection of art and care (including KAOS, Dr. Guislain Museum, wit.h) and with the support of cultural organizations (such as BUDA Arts Centre, workspacebrussels, VIERNULVIER, De Koer, radical_house).