Frie Leysen (1950-2020) *70

was a Belgian festival director. She was director of the art centre deSingel from 1980 until 1991. In 1994, she co-founded the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels. Frie Leysen was born in Hasselt on 19 February 1950 as the daughter of Bert Leysen, the first programming director of the NIR, and the twin sister of actor Johan Leysen. She studied Medieval Art History at the University of Leuven.

Leysen was the first director of art centre deSingel [nl] in Antwerp from 1980 to 1991. Together with Guido Minne she founded the Kunstenfestivaldesarts [nl] in Brussels in 1994. The first edition of the festival took place in May 1994. Under her direction the festival became an internationally acclaimed major event for Belgian and international performing artists. Frie Leysen started curating several international projects. In 2007 she organized Meeting Points, a multidisciplinary festival taking place in nine different Arabic cities (Amman, Damascus, Beirut, Ramallah, Cairo, Alexandria, El Minia, Tunis and Rabat), as well as in Brussels and Berlin. She curated the Theater der Welt in 2010, was an artistic director at Berliner Festspiele in 2010-12, and was the artistic director of the Wiener Festwochen in 2013–14. She curated the performing arts program of Homeworks 7 in Beirut in 2015.