Cuckoo

A journey through the last 20 years of Korean history told by a bunch of talkative rice cookers creation and direction Jaha Koo

##general.period##:: 01/29 - 30 2022
##general.room##:: Montjuïc. Sala Fabià Puigserver

Timetable

18:30

Running time

1 h

Place

Sala Fabià Puigserver

Language

In Korean and English languages subtitled in Catalan

Price

€9 to €29 / Katharsis subscription €39 (3 tickets)

Accessibility

Hearing assistance via mobile phone

South Korean theatre maker, videographer and composer Jaha Koo presents The Hamartia Trilogy in the Katharsis 2022 context. In Greek, hamartia means tragic flaw or shortcoming, a concept that Koo has interwoven into completely different guises throughout his three performances Lolling & Rolling, Cuckoo and The History of Korean Western Theatre.

In the trilogy, the far-reaching imperialism of the past and present, and its sometimes unexpected personal impact, are the common thread. In his intelligent and haunting documentary theatre performances, Jaha Koo intertwines personal stories with historical, political and sociological facts. Often themes that entail a clash of Eastern and Western culture: from the cutting of tongue belts to make it in the West, to the heavy personal toll of Western interference in the macroeconomic field.

The performances can also be enjoyed individually.

One day when his electric rice cooker informed him that his meal was ready, Jaha Koo experienced a deep sense of isolation. ‘Golibmuwon’ (고립무원) is an untranslatable Korean word expressing the feeling of helpless isolation that characterizes the lives of many young people in Korea today.
Twenty years ago there was a major economic crisis in South-Korea, comparable to the financial crash in the United States and Southern Europe in 2008. This crisis had a huge impact on the young generation to which South Korean artist Jaha Koo belongs. He witnessed many endemic problems including youth unemployment and socio-economic inequality. Rising suicide rates, isolation, acute social withdrawal and a fixation on personal appearance are but a few of the symptoms.
In bittersweet and humorous dialogues, Jaha and his clever rice cookers take you on a journey through the last 20 years of Korean history, combining personal experience with political events and reflections on happiness, economic crises and death.

What defines us? That is the question that is the focus of the 2022 edition of Katharsis, always associated with the origins of this special programme, in which we constantly ask ourselves what theatre is. Asking it ourselves means asking ourselves what we are as human beings and citizens. The boundaries that surround us create forms that define us politically, humanly, socially, culturally or artistically, even though we do not like some definitions, and we look for ways to change them from the fringes. This Katharsis features artists who use history, collective memory and even appearance to cross lines that make us rethink where we come from and where we are going.