Haribo Kimchi

Kimchi refers to vegetables that have been fermented to make them more flavourful and longer-lasting. The preparation of food is a language that reveals the structures of a society.

 

Cooking is the most direct method of exchange between cultures and therefore a powerful medium through which cultural identities and social beliefs are captured and represented. Jaha Koo explores the past and present of South Korea through the history of food.

 

In “Haribo Kimchi”, we find ourselves in a pojangmacha, a typical street food stall found on the streets of South Korea at night. With a menu that varies according to season and region, the pojangmacha offers quick snacks, just like everywhere else in our late capitalist societies, and everywhere where time is money.

 

On stage, the Pojangmacha turns out to be an imaginary place under the sea where mythical figures and lost sea creatures meet. There, Jaha Koo attempts to reshape the myths that have been eliminated by the commercialisation of Korean food by creating his own recipes as contemporary cuisine. A food performance that plays with all the senses and aims to completely change the audience’s perception of food and its cultural power.

 

Jaha Koo is a South Korean theatre maker, performer and music composer. In 2021 he presented his complete “Hamartia Trilogy” for the first time, after working on it since 2014. The trilogy – consisting of “Lolling and Rolling”, “Cuckoo” and “The History of Korean Western Theatre” – looks at how the inescapable past tragically affects our lives today. 

 

Concept, text, direction, music, sound & video Jaha Koo performance Jaha Koo, Seri, Toad & Haribo dramaturgy Dries Douibi scenography & media operation Eunkyung Jeong artistic advice Pol Heyvaert technical coordination Korneel Coessens technique Bart Huybrechts & Babette Poncelet Cuckoo hacking & Toad development Idella Craddock production coordination Wim Clapdorp tour management Leen de Broe international relations Marijke Vandersmissen communication Lennert Hoedaert & Manuel Haezebrouck production CAMPO coproduction Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Rideau de Bruxelles, Theater Utrecht, SPRING festival (Utrecht), Festival d’Automne à Paris, Théâtre de la Bastille (Paris), Tangente St-Pölten, &Espoo theatre (Finland), Kampnagel International Summer Festival (Hamburg), Sophiensaele (Berlin), Meet You Festival (Valladolid), Bunker (Ljubljana), National Theatre and Concert Hall Taipei, The Divine Comedy International Theater Festival/ Teatr Łaźnia Nowa (Kraków) & Perpodium with the support of the taxshelter of the Belgian Federal Government via Cronos Invest & the Flemish Government