Mbodj

“If it doesn’t exist, make it yourself”. As MBODJ (pronounced em-bodge), Maguette Dieng embodies this ideal. A full-time cultural activist at the centre of Barcelona’s underground community, she divides her energy between DJing, curating, educating, promoting and producing, both in Barcelona and in her ancestral home of Senegal.

As a selector she champions artists from Africa and the African diaspora, alongside leftfield sonics from around the world: her sets include gqom, jungle, grime, dubstep, Senegalese mbalax, footwork, noise... or any number of other genres. Unafraid of complexity and intensity, she embraces fragility and the tension of transition, toying with different moods and tempos. Mutek, Nyege Nyege Festival, Boiler Room and Sónar are just a few of the places that she’s played in recent years. In 2017, together with Senegalese artist Baba Sy, she co-founded Jokkoo, an afro-diasporic collective that amplifies the voices of African artists in Barcelona.

For both Maguette and Jokkoo, activism and art are indivisible, held together by the thread of community. Nothing represents this better than FOC, the repurposed warehouse that the collective have called home since 2021, which they’ve helped develop into a studio, workshop and venue. It’s a critical alternative space in Barcelona for artists and audiences who are disillusioned with the city’s increasingly profit-driven nightlife scene. FOC has provided Maguette and Jokkoo with more space to flex their skills as curators. They’ve invited radical live acts like Lord Spikeheart, Lolo & Sosaku, Raja Kirik, Slauson Malone 1, and Prison Religion, and more crucially, provided a space where local DJs and artists can develop their skills.

In parallel, they’ve curated the Lorem Ipsum cycle at storied modern art museum MACBA and the Electrónica in Abril series at Casa Encendida in Madrid, as well as collaborating with like-minded collectives across Europe. With FOC hosting everything from benefit events to activist meetings and workshops, Jokkoo has linked local actions with global issues, from Palestine to Sudan. For Maguette especially, education and outreach have also become a critical part of her artistic identity in recent years, and she’s spent more and more time in Senegal, running music and creativity workshops for local young people, and deepening her connection with her own roots.