What's on this week: 6-12 October

The Accessible Art Fair has been connecting collectors with up-and-coming artists since its inaugural edition in Brussels in 2006. It’s even become the model for a new style of unpretentious art collecting. Last year it travelled across the Atlantic to introduce New York to the concept. This 11th Brussels fair continues the tradition with its jury of art-world professionals hand-picking a new group of rising artists and designers to present their work in person to veteran and fledgling collectors alike.
5-8 October, Bozar, Brussels

Europe’s first festival devoted entirely to street photography was inaugurated last year in Brussels. Conceived by urban arts association Cakri, the Brussels Street Photography Festival promotes street photography as a social and academic tool as well as an art form. This edition provides a platform for over 75 young photographers from around the world. The photos of the finalists (including the photo above) are on display at the Galerie Ravenstein from 6-8 October. There are also contests, workshops, exhibitions, talks and walks.

This year the theme of the Nuit Blanche is power games and the area of the city in which it is taking place is the Freedoms/Our Lady of the Snows neighbourhood (and in the nearby Royal Park) where a number of major institutions such as the federal parliament are located. Read more about the event here…
7 October, 19.00-3.00, various venues

The Schaerbeek Halles present the second edition of Visions, is a show composed of digital installations that are poetic, cinematographic, interactive, hypnotic and scientific with works that go from water jets to holograms to interactive rays of light.
Until 27 October, Halles de Schaerbeek, Rue Royale Sainte-Marie, free

The Europalia arts biennale has been building cultural bridges since 1969. Each edition focuses on one country with a comprehensive treatment, showcasing everything from visual arts to dance to music to literature and film. The current edition celebrates Indonesia. The former Dutch colony enters the 21st century as a vibrant, multicultural country. Both traditional and contemporary forms are included in this months-long cultural extravaganza, which involves dozens of institutional partners and spans all of Belgium. The first show opens at Bozar on 11 October and is entitled Ancestors & Rituals. With 300 ethnic groups and 700 languages, Indonesia comprises many different cultures but most of them share the importance they ascribe to ancestors. The exhibition focuses on exchanges with other cultures and religions with a display of 160 archeological and ethnographic treasures never before seen in Europe.
Until 14 January 2018

In October 1517, Martin Luther famously nailed his 95 theses on the church door. To celebrate this 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the Erasmus House has gathered a rich collection of ancient manuscripts and documents including original examples of the indulgences that so angered Luther as well the oldest examples in Belgium of the New Testament (papyrus fragments in Greek), beautifully illuminated medieval bibles and psalters and the papal bull excommunicating Luther. The exhibition traces Erasmus' attempts at reconciliation. Visiting this show is a great opportunity to discover Erasmus House's wonderful garden and interiors as well the neighbourhood, the historical centre of Anderlecht village which still contains important vestiges of the past as well as an extremely irreverent statue of ducks. Trilingual tour pamphlet and audio stations in Dutch, Englsh, French and Latin.
Until 7 January 2018, Erasmus House, Anderlecht

The first two weeks of October are Solidarity Fortnight and this year, not surprisingly, the main theme is migration, approached in a serious and also in a light-hearted way. There are myriad activities organised all over the city in which migration is seen as a flight from harm but also as a way to get to a better world with a melding of cultures.

It’s the sixth edition of the International Dance Film Festival this weekend. This year’s theme is the difficult art of filming dance. First there’s a live dance opening night, then British historical dance films (1910 to 2000) and finally a selection of international dance films. Three venues.

Located in the City of London in an old bank building, Hispania is the largest restaurant dedicated to the cuisines of Spain in the world. And now, it has opened a second restaurant in Brussels in the Sablon. To celebrate its opening it is highlighting the cuisine of Castile and Leon until 9 October with London head chef Marco Moràn at the helm in Brussels.

Cinergie presents a lunchtime screening every month of a documentary. This Friday it’s The Skyscrapers of Moscow. From 1948 to 1957 Moscow was changed profoundly by the construction of seven massive skyscrapers which necessitated giant construction sites, wholesale neighbourhood destructions and even buildings transported by rail. An amazing story that is mostly unknown.
6 October, 12.30

Alimenterre film festival is an eye-opening exploration of industrial farming and its sustainable alternatives, this year spanning several Walloon cities as well as Brussels. In addition to free screenings of documentary exposés like Seed: The Untold Story and Dead Donkeys Fear No Hyenas, visitors can expect plenty of debates, discussions and DIY workshops. For the first time, the festival also presents the Prix Alimenterre at an award ceremony at Cinéma Galeries in Brussels on 15 October.
7 October-10 November, Brussels and Wallonia