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Culture beat - December 18

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12:09 18/12/2013
'Twas the week before Christmas and all through Brussels: ice sculptures, designer book-binding, street art and much more.

The International Festival of Ice Sculptures comes to Brussels for the first time. Ice Magic features dozens of comic strip-inspired ice sculptures created by twenty international artists. All of your favourite characters are here from Asterix to the Smurfs to Lucky Luke. Dress warmly as the covered ice pavilion is maintained at a frost 6° below zero.

 “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” Bibliotheca Wittockiana’s exhibition Shakespeare Bound is set to close in just a few short weeks and it is not to be missed. Thirty bookbinders from all over the world participated in this year’s International Bookbinding Competition by crafting their own editions of the famous Elizabethan playwright’s works. After the competition these submissions were catalogued and exhibited, first in London and now in Brussels. After 5 January, the collection will be packed up and moved on to Estonia, Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic.

 As Raffi is to North America, Aldebert is to France. Sure, the French chansonnier has dabbled in grown-up music but his biggest success came with Enfantillages, a children’s album released in 2008. Since then he has focused his energies on this key demographic, playing to large audiences of pint-sized patrons in concert halls across France, including Paris’ prestigious Olympia Theatre (where Belgium’s own Jacques Brel recorded a landmark album). Aldebert’s latest album Enfantillages 2 is out now and he’s crossing the border to present it in Brussels this Friday at Cirque Royale.

 La Bellone goes over the wall with a free exhibition of street art. Ten urban artists colonise the performance-arts centre for two weeks of street-level culture. You’ll experience graffiti, hip-hop and more. The exhibition is organised in collaboration with Winter Wonders.

 The Maurice Béjart House extends its biographical exhibition Béjart, Free Reign into the New Year. The influential Swiss choreographer lived at this central Brussels address for twenty years before his death in 2007. Some of his most celebrated ballets were rehearsed in the ground-floor studio, which is now open to the public for the first time. The retrospective doesn’t just cover Béjart’s Brussels days, though. There are photos, documents and artefacts from as far back as the 1920s. There’s even a nod to the cultural biennale-in-progress Europalia India; one segment of the exhibition is dedicated to Béjart’s 1968 fusion ballet Bhakti. Until 15 February 2014.

Outside Brussels

Bruges’ Historium has been delighting families since it opened its doors last summer. The multisensory attraction takes visitors back in time to the Middle Ages, when today’s tourist mecca was the commercial and financial hub of North-West Europe. The museum’s holiday programme shows us what Christmas was like in those days too. Kids will enjoy daily crafts workshops and medieval holiday games. The whole family will marvel at live demonstrations by falconers, fire-eaters and acrobats. Finally local historian Jo Berten will give a special presentation on the origins of Christmas. All this takes place in the Historium’s open-air holiday village, complete with nativity scene, pine trees and a cosy fire.

Written by Georgio Valentino