Lola Daels

Lola Daels (b. 1990, Jette, BE) is a Brussels-based artist whose practice departs from found materials and displaced fragments. Through processes of extraction, recomposition, and translation, she interrogates how value, authenticity, and meaning are constructed within a globalized world. Her work unfolds at the intersection of material history and ecological urgency, tracing the often invisible imprint of human activity on landscapes and matter.

Rather than treating materials as neutral carriers, Daels approaches them as active witnesses—bearing geological, industrial, and political narratives. Her recent work increasingly focuses on the entanglement of extraction, transformation, and environmental degradation, reflecting a sustained engagement with post-industrial sites and their afterlives.

Alongside her individual practice, she collaborates with architect Sebastiaan Willemen. Together, they explore the metabolisms that shape our built environment, approaching sites as dynamic systems in which social, spatial, and material processes converge. Their projects position context not as a backdrop, but as a driving force—one that actively informs and transforms the work.