&Fest – Focus Gent: Cuckoo

Jaha Koo’s Cuckoo reflects on South Korea's recent history in a bittersweet and gently humorous dialogue with programmed rice cookers. Some 20 years ago, the Korean economy collapsed, causing mass youth unemployment, growing socio-economic inequalities, suicides, loneliness, isolation, and other related phenomena that continue to impact the present day. Jaha and his smart rice cookers take us on a journey through Korean history, make connections between personal experience and political events, and examine happiness, economic crises, and death.

Jaha Koo is a South Korean theatre/performance maker and music composer. His artistic practice oscillates between multimedia and performance, all of which include his own music, video, text and installation. Jaha Koo’s performances are closely interweaved with politics, history and his own personal issues. Cuckoo is the second part of his Hamartia Trilogy, which thematically focuses on how the inescapable past tragically affects our lives today.