What’s on this week: 11-17 December

The Triforium Art Gallery at the Solvay Library hosts the sublime work of Belgian fashion and fine art photographer Geert De Taeye. His highly stylised photographs look like paintings, sometimes recalling a 17th-century Pieta, other times a 1940s Edward Hopper. This exhibition, Staring Into the Middle Distance: The Sound of Silence, groups images that were either made specifically in response to the coronavirus crisis or that reflect its effect on certain themes close to De Taeye: The death of arts, the abandonment of the feast. Until 31 January, Rue Belliard 137 (in Leopold Park)

The Royal Flemish Theatre, KVS, has a dedicated streaming platform where it regularly sends out previously staged performances. Visitors can see dance and theatre free of charge, with English subtitles. You can even visit the digital bar to chat with other visitors.

Be-Here, the market for local, sustainable food products, is staying open late over the next two weekends for festive nocturnes, perfect for getting yourself just what you need for holidays dinners – or gifts for someone else. Biscuits from MadLab, chocolate by Nao, craft beers by La Source, gift baskets from Discover Belgium – the list is endless. 11-12, 18-19 December 12.00-21.00, Rue Dieudonné Lefèvre 4

The Ixelles Museum’s Museum at Home initiative sees works from the collection on show in private homes. The hosts are allowed to choose a work themselves and then open their homes to visitors to see it in a unique location, outside of museum walls. This year the “at home” moniker is particularly appropriate – you’ll be seeing the works in their homes from your own home. Museum at Home goes online, with virtual visits to participating hosts. But more, too, as the museum offers performances, games and artistic challenges. On Sunday, a livestreamed event will put visitors in touch with hosts of the artworks. 12-13 December

The Rue Blaes art space is hosting a solo exhibition of paintings by Brussels expat artist Katrin Straub. Unconfined includes works inspired by the coronavirus crisis and lockdowns. Until 21 December, Rue Blaes 150

The exhibition Hotel Beethoven is back open at Bozar, and now the fine arts centre is hosting free livestreamed concerts of the seminal composer’s music on historical instruments. Namely, the fortepiano, a precursor to the modern piano. Next up is a programme that includes Sonata Pathétique and variations on cello and piano for the ‘Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen’ aria from The Magic Flute. On cello is Ronan Kernoa and on Pianoforte is Sayuri Nagoya. Until 5 January

As digital algorithms increasingly decide what we see, our opinions are being formed by artificial intelligence. This easily turns into conformity of thought, which the artists involved in Risquons-Tout are questioning and defying. The ambitious group exhibition at Wiels explores breaking beyond boundaries that limit thoughts, ideas, and people in an age when the internet provides unlimited access to all knowledge – human and non-human. Until 10 January, Avenue Van Volxemlaan 354 (Forest)

The Full Circle international club hosts American anthropologist Gabriella Coleman for the online talk  Anonymous vs the Alt Right. Coleman specialises in hacking and digital activism and is now studying the influence of the far right on social media. She’ll compare the vigilante justice operations of Anonymous with the manipulative tactics of online trolls to look at the importance of the internet on today’s political movements. 15 December 18.45-20.30

OUTSIDE BRUSSELS

Acclaimed 20th-century New York artist Roy Lichtenstein was behind some of Pop Art’s most iconic images – comic-strip scenes inspired by post-war popular culture. But there was much more to his oeuvre, as the long-awaited retrospective Roy Lichtenstein: Visions Multiples reveals. The full diversity and skill of the pioneering artist’s technique are evidenced via some 100 works, including prints, sculptures and tapestries. Arranged by theme rather than chronologically, the exhibition is a captivating and illuminating exploration of Lichtenstein’s prolific and tireless experimentation of print techniques, which incorporated 100 years’ worth of artistic practices. Until 18 April, BAM, Rue Neuve 8, Mons

Concerned about the crowds in Bruges and Brussels? Get off the beaten path in Sint-Truiden, which is bathed in a warm glow of light. Starting at sundown, the lights come on, and a five-kilometre trail takes you through installations staged by light artists. The walking map is available to download online and in a printed version that can be picked up in the tourist office. The map can also be found after hours in the entryways to city hall and the Bogaard Culture Centre. Until 14 February

Photos, from top: ©Geert De Taeye; courtesy B-Here; ©Katrin Straub; ©Christian Nyampeta/Wiels; ‘Crying Girl’, Roy Lichtenstein, 1963