South Korean artist Jaha Koo has won the prestigious International Ibsen award, and his life motto is “jelliness”. The theatre-maker, now based in Belgium, was honoured in Oslo for productions that blend food, technology and cultural identity, including his current show Haribo Kimchi.
The award, founded by the Norwegian government, comes with a prize of 2.5m kroner (£200,000). Past recipients include Lola Arias, Taylor Mac and Forced Entertainment. Koo met a journalist the day after the ceremony, accepting a packet of Haribo sweets for his flight home.
From kimchi explosion to gummy bears
Koo moved to Berlin from South Korea with 10kg of his grandmother’s kimchi, but it “bloated like a dead whale” and exploded on his balcony. His new neighbours were unimpressed. In Europe, he discovered Haribo gummy bears, which he had not eaten before arriving. “When you push jelly, it can shrink and change form but after a few seconds, it recovers its shape,” he says. “That is the same resilience I need to improve when I live outside Korea.”
In Haribo Kimchi, Koo examines how the fusion of these two foods represents his cultural identity. He prepares an onstage banquet for two audience members, using a Korean snack cart called a pojangmacha. “They are movable. There is no address. They appear in the evening and then disappear,” he says of the carts, which he likens to lives in transit.
Kimchi diaspora and robotic eel
Koo describes himself as part of “a kimchi diaspora”. “Kimchi can be very diverse,” he says, noting that recipes adapt to available ingredients without becoming inauthentic. Preparing the dish in Belgium sums up how he is “true to his roots yet adapting to a new environment – a kind of cultural assimilation”.
The show features a robotic eel that slithers across the stage and sings a ballad. Koo says he was drawn to eels because they leave their birth home, journey afar, but “then go back to their home before they die”. The set is designed by Eunkyung Jeong, who is married to Koo, with dramaturgy by Dries Douibi.
Angry Cuckoo and future K-pop show
Koo’s earlier production Cuckoo, revived in Oslo, uses hacked talking rice cookers as symbols of “economic imperialism and the pressure upon society”. It delves into the long-term impact of Korea’s late 90s financial crisis and the International Monetary Fund’s $58bn rescue package, describing “a generation without a future”.
His other works include Lolling and Rolling, about tongue surgery some South Koreans pursue to pronounce the English “R”, and The History of Korean Western Theatre. His next project will examine K-pop, which he calls “a force for change”, noting its use in political protest against former President Yoon’s martial law attempt in 2024. It will be his first show where he does not perform; the cast will comprise singers.
Haribo Kimchi is touring Europe until 21 November.
