Russian culture celebrated all this week in Brussels

Ten years since its inception, the Russian House in Brussels is this week devoting an entire programme to art, from film screenings to craft workshops and musical performances. Home to 25 immigrant organisations, the centre is a hub of activity and a platform for creatively minded Russians and anyone interested in knowing more about eastern customs.

"We have 100,000 Russians in Belgium, and half are in Brussels, says director Marina Novikova, one of the Russian House's volunteers. "We would like to integrate in the community but not lose our roots."

Ludmila Krasnova moved from Russia to Belgium 15 years ago. She says a goal of the Russian Culture Week programme is how we might "all live together in a multicultural context and understand each other". An engraving artist and graduate from La Cambre school, Krasnova will be putting on some free child-friendly illustration and technical workshops as part of the week's activities.

Elsewhere, the Wij zijn BRUSselaars exhibition at the Flemish Cultural Centre of Saint-Josse features a variety of artwork by Russian-speaking artists. Some are well-established, such as punk painter Andrey Babenko, and others are budding talents, including Stepan Knyazev, an artist creating handmade clocks from unusual objects.

The headline event will be the classical concert taking place on Thursday at the Musée Charlier. Katja Katanova, a violinist from Moscow, will be performing alongside the pianist Yulia Vershinina.

Katanova says she started playing when she was five, recalling how she was at a friend's house when she first heard the sound of the violin. "I saw for the first time in my life the violin and I was completely in love with this instrument. I could not give it back, I spent all the evening holding it.” She has not let go of it since, and it has brought her to the music academies of Moscow, Vienna and Brussels.

The programme for the duet is varied, offering a musical odyssey from the 18th century to the present day. Most of the pieces are Russian, including works by Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, but the last piece is by Belgian composer Gwenaël Grisi. Divertimento, a romantic and very modern piece, was exclusively written for the evening on Katanova's suggestion.

Aside from music premieres, the artisan market takes place on Saturday. There will be plenty of Russian delicacies to try, which might come as a relief to Russian expat Sofya Postnikova. "I miss Russian food," she says. "But it makes no sense to look for it here when Belgian chocolate and waffles are at hand."

Postnikova is a young professional who moved to Belgium a couple of months ago from Krasnoyarsk, in the middle of Siberia. “Winters there are indeed much colder than you imagine, the lowest temperature I remember being -46°C”

"Living in Siberia means you need around five hours to get to Moscow by plane and several days to reach it by train. Hence, travelling is always well-thought and planned in advance there. Here, you may spend 40 minutes in a train and find yourself in France. I like this feeling of closeness and easy-to-reachness."

Postnikova is fascinated by the diversity of Brussels. "The traditions and languages cross and create a unique mixture that you at first do not know how to deal with," she says.

Organisers of the Russian Culture Week agree that the event is about bridging cultural differences, but also offering an enriching insight into different perspectives. “The House is more than a language school," says Novikova. "We are expats but at the same time we are Bruxellois. All the cultures are mixed in the melting pot that is Brussels. We are citizens of the world. In the 21st century, it is better to unite and not to be separate."

Russian Culture Week, 26-30 September, various locations