Culture Beat - 29 November

The Maison Autrique, built in 1893, was one of architect Victor Horta’s first major commissions and this alone makes the fully restored house worth the visit. The temporary exhibition Shadows & Lanterns (until January 26) is an added bonus, enhancing the fin-de-siècle flavour of the place. With the help of partners at Cinematek, Maison Autrique takes you on a multimedia journey through time. Original shadow puppets, optical illusions, magic lanterns and an elaborate, Rube Goldberg-style praxinoscope show us what entertainment looked like before the advent of modern cinema.

Photo: Rémi Desmots/Lapinsalinge

The four-day block party called Les Nocturnes du Sablon has become a seasonal tradition in the capital’s chic gallery district. The theme of this weekend’s Nocturnes is “Surrealism” and at its heart is a surreal exhibition of 35 festive fir trees, each designed by an art student from La Cambre, sponsored by a local business and submitted for the prize jury’s consideration (winners to be announced on closing night). A centre stage provides nightly live chamber music and DJs. Foodies are welcome too. Every night a different team of four gourmet Brussels chefs are on hand to hustle their haute cuisine in street food form (with a little visual help from yet more of La Cambre’s finest artists-in-training).

The fourth edition of the sprawling indoor music festival Autumn Falls continues at Ancienne Belgique with an evening of music headlined by Italian composer Teho Teardo and German singer/noisemaker Blixa Bargeld (veteran of the cult group Einstürzende Neubauten as well as Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds). The duo perform pieces from their new album Still Smiling, accompanied by a cellist. Get there early as three other experimental groups (including Antwerp’s DAAU) will perform as well.

Outside Brussels

Tony Oursler has shown at the MoMA, the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Tate. His music video for David Bowie’s recent single Where Are We Now? has been seen by millions around the world. The American multimedia artist’s latest challenge is an uncanny exhibition at Wallonia’s post-industrial arts centre MAC’s. Phantasmagoria features a selection of Oursler’s early work as well as two new site-specific installations; one invests the old mining complex’s mausoleum and the other pays tribute to the Liège-born illusionist who pioneered the 18th-century art (and science) which gives the exhibition its name. Until February 23.