Béné Jakel is a German-French artist and spatial practitioner based in London and Berlin, with a transdisciplinary practice of art, architecture and activism. Having studied at the AA in London and the University of Stuttgart, Béné now teaches a Media Studies Elective in the Diploma Programme of the AA and has taught in both the AA Summer School and the Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Stuttgart, as well as trustee on AA Council. Since 2024, their work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025. In their practice, Smash Studios, Béné explores transformative approaches to material, objects and space as means for subversive storytelling, vehicles for decolonial processes, and sites of struggle for social, political and ecological justice.