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What's on this week: 28 July-3 August

19:52 26/07/2017
Fruit-picking, Art Nouveau and Bozar's Open Air festival. Here's our pick for the week

The Centre for Fine Arts, better known as Bozar, never takes a break. The capital’s top cultural institution hosts summer exhibitions, events and, most spectacularly, the Bozar Open Air festival. Throughout the summer, the neighbouring Rue Baron Horta comes alive with a skate park, pop-up graffiti wall and a programme of street art events linked to the MIXITY.brussels 2017 flagship exhibition, YO: Brussels Hip-Hop Generations. There’s also a temporary swimming pool and summer bar. Finally, Bozar collaborates with eclectic, accessible film festival System_D for a series of open-air screenings.
Until 17 September, Bozar, Brussels

The Art and Design Atomium Museum showcases a century of Belgian design, from the architectural splendour of Art Nouveau to the socially minded interwar avant garde to postwar modernism and beyond.
Until 7 January, Adam, Place de Belgique, Brussels

The Coudenberg hosts an underground exhibition of works by the 17th-century Italian artist Remigio Cantagallina, who documented his travels through the old southern Netherlands in a sketchbook. The images held historical as well as aesthetic value.
Until 27 August, Coudenberg Palace, Place des Palais 7, Brussels

In order to give you a preview of what’s to come during the What’s up Brussels? festival this October, a showcase - Chill'n with What's Up Brussels - will take place this Saturday at Bozar with a freestyle dance competition, a fashion show, drinks and the presentation of the musical artists. 16.00 final casting for dancers and models; 18.00 programme starts.
29 July, Bozar, Brussels, free but reservations required

Carillon, the making of music by playing church bells with a keyboard, originated in Belgium (at the time the Spanish Netherlands) in Oudenaarde in 1510. Since then, Belgium has always been a place where one has a lot of choices in carillon concerts. A case in point is the series of 14 concerts at the cathedral in Brussels throughout the second half of 2017, each one featuring a Belgian carillonneur from either Flanders or Wallonia. If you've never had the experience of listening to a concert created by a musician who uses his or her fists and feet to hit the batons of the keyboard to make extremely heavy-tuned bronze bells peal in a certain order to produce music (serially to produce a melody, or sounded together to play a chord) here's your chance this Sunday at 14.00. The best place to listen is the square in front of the cathedral. This week the carillonneur playing the cathedral's 49 bells is Ludo Geloen from Ypres and Poperinge in West Flanders.

The Atelier de Recherche et d’Action Urbaines (ARAU) Art Nouveau coach tour allows participants to understand the place of Art Nouveau in Brussels, its origins, its technical and stylistic characteristics and the personalities of its most well-known architects and has proved to be one of its most popular tours. The tour travels through several districts of the city to show beautiful Art Nouveau facades, some of which are Unesco world heritage sites and it also offers the chance to visit extraordinary Art Nouveau interiors, including some not normally open to the public. Each tour includes at least two interiors from the following list: Victor Horta’s Van Eetvelde house, Winssinger house, Autrique house or Waucquez store (now the Belgian Strip Cartoon Centre), Henri Jacobs’ Schaerbeek School No.1 or School No.13, Paul Hamesse’s Cohn-Donnay house (now De Ultieme Hallucinatie bar-restaurant) and Fernand Symons’ Palais du Vin. In English and French.
29 July 10.00-13.00, meet at foot of the Cardinal Mercier statue on the side of the cathedral, booking required

Anita Mukérabirori wants to help you develop your "joie de vivre and pleasure in sharing" with an African dance workshop in which you will learn breathing techniques, how to root yourself in a body/spirit continuum, aligning your body on its vertical and horizontal axes, and the basics of African dance, solo, duet and group dancing.
29 July 11.00-12.30, Ressourcements meditation garden, Overijse, €15

If you missed the first weekend of this year's Tomorrowland Festival you still have a chance to enjoy what is one of the world's most lauded and awarded music festivals - for its music, stage design, customer satisfaction, roster of musicians, food, facilities and fun - during its second weekend starting Friday. An appreciative international audience converges from everywhere (even the King and Queen showed up last weekend) and the vibe is always friendly.

Few museums seem as perfectly suited to a beautiful summer day as the enchanting David and Alice Van Buuren Museum in Uccle. The Van Buurens' residence for decades, the museum is not only a house filled with the best in mostly Belgian art (mostly from the 20th century but with pieces going back to the 15th century) but also a series of gardens: the labyrinth, the heart garden (both designed by René Pechère), the newly restored rose garden (designed by Jules Buyssens) and the jardin pittoresque. And this summer, in collaboration with the Caro Studio, the gardens are dotted with sculptures by renowned British sculptor Anthony Caro - "much acclaimed for his innovative approach of removing the sculpture from its plinth and encouraging direct interaction between viewers and the work. He saw sculpture as a form of art that opens up on to space."

What links are there between water and Brussels? Pellucid water, running water, loving water, deep water, dead water, dangerous waters, purifying and protective waters? To answer this question Explore Brussels offers a historical, contemporary, poetic and alchemical tour that begins with the origins of the city.
30 July 14.30, start point Petite rue au Beurre 9, reservations recommended

It's an international weekend at Brussels Beach. On Friday from 18.00 to 23.00 there are Bollywood performances, workshops and DJs, and Saturday from 13.00-17.30 the Peruvian Consul will be presenting an afternoon of Peruvian music and dance including a special programme for children in honour of Peruvian national day. On Sunday there's a live Brazilian orchestra from 17.00-22.00. And of course, the movies from Tokyo screenings continue on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

It's too late for the strawberries but you can still pick raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, as well as various types of flowers at Fruit Time, the only pick-your-own fruit stand in Brussels. It makes for a great afternoon in the farmlands that still occupy the southwestern part of Brussels. They give you a container and once you've filled it you weigh it and pay for it. Also available is their fabulous home made raspberry jam. And you can extend your visit to the countryside by stopping in at one of the two country cafés nearby (De Notelaar right next door and In Den Appelboom up the street), complete with extensive garden seating and children's games.

The beautiful rolling hills just west of Brussels are known as the Pajottenland and are not only the home of Gueuze and Lambics which since they are fermented exclusively with airborne yeasts can only be made there, but also is home to a number of castles. Belgium has the most castles per square mile of any country in the world and no more so than in this area. Here's a brief selection (you can discover many more while exploring): Gaasbeek castle is the heavyweight, gorgeous grounds, fascinating architecture spanning centuries and off beat, cleverly mounted temporary exhibitions. The new show is The Artist/Knight - "an exhibition with and about artists imbued with the spirit of chivalry and who bring the knight to life in countless incarnations, ranging from gentle irony to unbounded passion. It pays homage to the knight as a figure of style, a poetic icon who gallops through our imagination. A quest to find our better self. An encounter with the incorruptible hero we would all like to be." Needless to say this is not just a bunch of guys in armour. And there is, within biking distance the Colima castle (a renaissance beauty) and just across the way through the fields from Gaasbeek is Groenenberg castle. Groenenberg is a bit of a pastiche and not open to the public but the grounds are outstanding and free. A little more to the south, there is the famous castle at Beersel with its purely military architecture and lovely restaurant at its gates. Outside the Gaasbeek gates is the Gaasbeek Ice-Cream Bar, home of highly rated frozen sweets.

The sixth edition of classical musical festival Ars in Cathedrali takes place every Tuesday evening in Brussels’ cathedral. August performers include Belgian pianist Thérèse Malengreau and German organ virtuoso Martin Sturm.
Until 29 August, Saint Michel and Saint Gudula Cathedral, Brussels

Three iconic bands from British punk-rock history - Buzzcocks, the Stranglers and the Bollock Brothers - are performing this Saturday about 45 minutes from Brussels in the exceptional setting of the Hôpital Notre-Dame à la Rose in Lessines, a hospital dating back to 1242 which has been rescued from demolition and lovingly restored.
29 July 19.00, Hôpital Notre Dame à la Rose, Lessines

On selected Fridays until the end of August, there will be a fireworks display in Laeken. This week, the theme is urban ecology, with a labyrinth, farmyard animals, insect tastings and workshops. At 21.00 there’s a country music concert and dance classes; the fireworks start at 23.00.
28 July 18.00-midnight, Place de Belgique 1, Brussels; free

Written by Georgio Valentino, Richard Harris, Diana Goodwin, Paul McNally