Wie Kan Zijn Noodlot Dwingen? (2019-2020)

What is in a name? What is the legacy of the (FKA moorkop), a chocolate-glazed choux pastry whose name is a racial slur? Drawing attention to the construction and persistence of societal and ethnic divisions (hidden in names and elsewhere), Caner brings to life a ghostly apparition of the Dutch dessert, who recites lines from Shakespeare’s Othello in old Dutch. The pastry’s name was first deployed in the Middle Ages to name indigenous Amazigh and now designates people of north african descent as Europe’s “Other”. The pastry protagonist speaks and sings about stereotypes while reflecting on debates in Dutch media about its own name change to chocoladebal. The video challenges and calls on viewers to think about the prejudices of representation and the meaning of a name.