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.

구자하는 세 대의 전기밥솥과의 대화를 통해 한국에 드리워진 경제적 제국주의가 낳은 결과를 되짚어본다. 씁쓸함과 다정함이 공존하는 그의 멀티미디어 퍼포먼스는 압박 속에 살아가는 청년세대의 고립과 불안을 섬세하게 파고든다.  

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