Feral 2026 - Pirate

During demonstrations in the four corners of the world, one sees a pirate flag with a straw hat floating. It is the banner of the manga series One Piece which has spread in struggles and revolutions as an international symbol of Generation Z, embodying the fight against corruption, inequalities, and authoritarian governments. It is from this standard that we have set to work on the figure of the pirate for Feral 2026. While this flag appears in political demonstrations, what demands does it carry? What place for freedom of expression in the public space? To what practices, what forms of organization, and what values does it refer today? Historically, piracy was a movement of revolt and mutiny against authority. Fighting on the water, hiding on land as runaway maroons, among escaped slaves, the pirates formed communities of resistance that gave birth to other possibilities, to other versions of the world. What remains today of this legacy? Who are, on the scale of Brussels, the contemporary pirates? From hacker practices to citizen initiatives, from forms of collective care to artistic and ecological experiments, we see emerging practices that divert existing frameworks to produce new knowledge, share resources, and build community. We are witnesses to new forms of engagement where artistic creation, collective action, and the fabrication of commons intertwine. Through the choice of speakers, who are at once artists, researchers, activists, and field actors, we will constitute an ephemeral assembly of pirates. Together we will go to meet the Brussels places, practices, and stories that experiment with other ways of inhabiting the world, of taking care, and of organizing collectively. We will: Gather our crew Navigate in the margins of the "Empire" Dream of sharing the loot Act against the criminalization of solidarity Name the tactics of disobedience Infiltrate Camouflage ourselves Think from the sea Link what has been separated Listen to what whistles Traffic radios Trace our own maps and paths Be inspired by the mole that has no borders Bricolage rafts Cast off the moorings Sing the canal Walk toward the clouds that were under our feet And who knows, write our own pirate code?