Hedwig Fijen

Hedwig Fijen is known as the founding director of Manifesta 1 in Rotterdam in 1996 and executive director of the Manifesta Foundation in Amsterdam,The Netherlands. To reinvent the structure of Manifesta as a biennial she initiated in 2001 a structural theoretical programme, encompassing the Manifesta Journal, Manifesta publications, conferences such as the Manifesta Coffee Breaks and a lecture series called Decoding Europe.

Hedwig Fijen studied History and History of Art in Amsterdam, was trained as a curator at The Netherlands Office of Fine Arts in the beginning of the nineties and worked as independent curator. At this stage she is responsible for the overall development of Manifesta, as executive director of the Foundation. She has lectured extensively and wrote many articles in the context of Manifesta as a biennial.