Open talk by Frie Leysen
The open talk “Embracing the Elusive” by Frie Leysen took place on Friday 5 February at 18:00 at Zirgu pasts Dzirnavu street 46.
In her lecture “Embracing the Elusive or About a Necessity of a Superfluous” Frie Lesyen talked about art which is not luxury, but an absolute necessity, about the art’s role of being disturbing not pleasing. Having worked all over the world and in particular being familiar with the contemporary art processes in Asia and Middle East, she looked at the world which is not any more centered around Europe and about artists relationship with the society and the political elite in Europe and elsewhere.
Frie Leysen is one of the most inspiring personalities in performing arts world, curator and programme director of some of the most exciting festivals and venues in Europe. Frie Leysen founded theatre centre deSingel in Antwerp in 1980 and during its ten years of existence, it became an internationally recognized venue with a unique programme. In 1994 she founded Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, which is until this day one of the most progressive and forward thinking performing arts festivals in Europe and beyond. Ten years later she handed the festival over to the younger generation of programmers and left for Middle East where she curated interdisciplinary festival Meeting Points across nine cities. In 2010 Frie Leysen was invited to curate the programme of Theater der Welt and in 2012, she was artistic director of Berliner Festspiele. In 2014 and 2015 Frie Leysen was the head of drama department at the festival Wiener Festwochen, which she left due her disapproval that the most of the festival budget was spent on administration rather than on artists and artistic activities.
The lecture was part of the training programme “Theatre Expanded” organized by the New Theatre Institute of Latvia with the support of the ERAF Central Baltic Porgramme 2014-2020.
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