Biography
Lili Vanderstraeten is a performer and creator fascinated by the multiformity of textiles and the daily routines of (self-)care. For her, art is a wordless exploration, a dialogue with the world, and a space for collaboration. She seeks to break rigid patterns and celebrate experimentation, fragmentation, and multiplicity.
Lili develops her work by embedding herself in diverse contexts, often outside traditional venues, favouring public and semi-public spaces like parks, libraries, and monasteries. Guided by curiosity and a practice of endurance, she actively engages with her surroundings, dedicating time and presence. She believes that through experience, conversations and interactions deepen, and sensory impressions awaken an inner panorama.
Since 2020, she has co-led Spa for Spirits, a travelling meeting place with artist Leonie Buysse that questions human well-being. Since 2017, she has collaborated with multidisciplinary artist Florencia Orlandino under EllCompany, creating social-artistic projects focused on tangible and bodily experiences. She also co-curates Celestial Bodies, an international performing arts platform centred on shared practices and collective action.
In 2024, Lili began collaborating with Kito Kotsoane at the Dr. Guislain Museum, where the duo started composing with textiles in the garden of the psychiatric hospital. A strong connection developed, and since then, Kito has been a valuable collaborator and ally in shaping the direction of the research.
In residentie Huskrooms
12.01.2026 – 16.01.2026
Finding sheltering shell-selves
on harmless whistled
scareless scarless fingertips
Half-armed leaning defines
the broken chair chains
of goodness interferes
Bending the stuffed toy necks
next to the one-eyed winding ups
is there in blinking eyes
The newborn’s glaze
the breastfeeding of mankind’s
mammals with enigmatic weeds of wisdom’s
Care
– Poem by Henny Baeken
Huskrooms is a traveling installation activated through performances and unfolding organically via interactions with its surroundings and participants. Comprising carefully collected and reworked textiles, the artwork interweaves relationally—like a living organism—with the space, people, weather, textures, and materials of its temporary location.
The artwork aims to create a space for self-encounter, shared environment, and collective action. It invites a slower perception of time and offers an ‘offline’ experience. What do we allow to exist? How quickly do we discard things—objects, and people?
In a world where the relentless pursuit of progress often sidelines rituals and shared narratives, Huskrooms seeks to carve out moments for reflection and stillness, where movement and transformation can emerge spontaneously, and feelings of grief, farewell, and mourning become tangible.
The project aims to “dress” people anew—restoring warmth, protection, and a sense of humanity. Through textile objects such as blankets and structures made from hundreds of sewn-together sleeves and pant legs, an ingeniously constructed living environment emerges, inviting collaboration, dynamic interaction, and collective discovery.
The participatory nature of Huskrooms aligns with the artistic principles of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark. As in her work, the physical and emotional experiences of individuals in relation to the group are central. The project functions as a platform for connection, experimentation, and rediscovery of the everyday, blurring the boundaries between art and life.