Built for Possibility

Moko is Future, 2022.

Shot in a vertical format, Jeannette Ehlers’ video work Moko is Future shows a colourfully dressed stilt dancer moving through the empty streets of Copenhagen’s old colonial neighbourhoods early in the morning. The work takes its starting point in the mythical figure Moko Jumbie from Afro-Caribbean folklore, who according to legend crossed the Atlantic from West Africa to the Caribbean to look after its people. Moko means ‘healer’ and Jumbie means ‘spirit’, and in the carnival tradition, Moko Jumbie walks on stilts through the streets to protect the city from evil. In an effort to shed light on the shadowy aspects of Copenhagen history, Moko Jumbie crossed the Atlantic once again to care for its people in this region and to heal the colonial wound.

Caribbean carnival culture dates back to the eighteenth century when the colonial authorities arranged annual masquerades in which the enslaved Africans were not allowed to participate. Instead, they developed their own carnival, incorporating gods and religions from their homelands. Unlike many belief systems where the holy is distinct from and opposed to the secular, these religions considered the sacred to be present in the mundane. By covering up, putting on a mask and letting themselves be transformed, stilt dancers conjure the spirit of Moko Jumbie. Art, magic and religion overlap and coexist in everything at the same time.