Culture beat – 13 March

Painting the city green this week is the city’s vibrant Irish community. Topping the celebrations is the St Patrick’s Day Parade on Sunday. The family-friendly event starts at 13.00 in Cinquantenaire Park. Organised by the Irish in Europe Association, it is led by the Brussels Caledonian Corneymusers pipe band. To mark St Patrick’s Day on Tuesday, the Grand‘Place joins in a global greening initiative. The medieval square will be illuminated in green at 20.45, along with other iconic sites around the world. For more Emerald Isle culture and tradition, check out the St Patrick’s Festival programme at Kraainem’s De Lijsterbes.

Art and artisanship is thriving in Belgium with hundreds of designers producing personalised and handcrafted jewellery, sculpture, ceramics, glass and culinary treats. Since 1996, ArtisanArt showcases their work in an annual fair. The 19th edition at Tour & Taxis until 15 March continues to promote young talent and artisanship as an economical sector for the future. Each year, the fair awards a prize to the best Brussels artisan.

Exploring the boundaries between performance and visual art is the biennial festival Performatik at Kaaitheater and other venues between 13 and 29 March. The fourth edition offers a feast of events and avant-garde creations with performances by leading European artists, including Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Ulla von Brandenburg, Philippe Gehmacher, Heine Avdal & Yukiko Shinozaki, among others. De Keersmaeker re-thinks dance in an exhibition project at Wiels, Work/Travail/Arbeid with the choreographer reimagining her celebrated work Vortex Temporum.

International documentaries are under the spotlight in the annual Millenium Film Festival from 20 to 28 March in venues across the city. The 7th edition opens at Bozar with The Yes Men are Revolting by Laura Nix (US 2014). The sequel follows the 2003 Yes Men hit, this time detailing the pair of activist pranksters as they pull off stunts highlighting the issue of climate change. The festival also screens three Belgian premieres, including Thierry Michel’s latest film L’Homme qui répare les femmes about a doctor in the DRC treating women who have suffered sexual violence.

To Focus or Not to Focus is the topic up for discussion at Full Circle’s next talking head dinner on 19 March. The professional networking group invites Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez to stimulate debate over drinks and dinner at a city-centre venue, that in Full Circle fashion will be confirmed two days before the event. The academic and author of The Focused Organization shares his insights into making the most of our time.

More than 200 works by Marc Chagall have been collected from around the world to form a retrospective at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts until 28 June. The exhibition provides a rare insight into the Jewish painter-poet’s artistic journey, from 1908 to 1980. Divided into the major stages of his career, it details recurrent themes such as Russian folklore, dream-like floating figures and village life – all in the vivid colour that characterises his work.