Cuckoo

One day, as his rice cooker dinged to announce his rice was ready, Jaha Koo suddenly experienced a deep loneliness. In Korean, the word golibmuwon (고립무원), which describes this feeling of isolation and powerlessness, echoes the malaise of an entire generation. At the end of the 1990s, South Korea went through a severe economic crisis which led to the country being forced to implement reforms dictated by the International Monetary Fund. Jaha Koo is part of a generation who experienced booming unemployment, social inequalities, and an explosion of the suicide rate among young generations. The artist revisits twenty years of Korean history through an improbable dialogue with three rice cookers, weaving together political and personal stories.

한국 길거리 음식을 노점에서 요리하며, 자하 구는 여러 문화권 사이에서 살아온 개인적인 이야기와 위안을 주는 음식, 그리고 동화(同化)의 아픔을 하나로 버무려낸다. 

With Duri, Hana, Jaha Koo, Seri 

Concept, direction, text, music and video Jaha Koo 
Cuckoo hacking Idella Craddock 
Scenography Eunkyung Jeong 
Dramaturgy Dries Douibi 
Technical team Bart Huybrechts and Tom Daniels

Production Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek (Sint-Gillis) 
Executive producer CAMPO (Gent) 
Coproduction Bâtard festival (Brussels) 
Support CAMPO, STUK (Leuven), Buda (Brussels), DAS, SFAC & Noorderzon/Grand Theatre (Groningen) 
With the help of the Flemish Community