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  • Theatre
  • SPRING coproduction
  • NL premiere

Haribo Kimchi

Jaha Koo / CAMPO
Date
Sat 21 September 20:00, Sun 22 September 15:00, Sun 22 September 20:00
Location
De Paardenkathedraal
Duration
65 min
Language
Korean (English & Dutch subtitles)
Country
South Korea/Belgium
Price
€18,- / €15,-
Themes
Non-western, Face from the crowd
Edition
SPRING Days
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In this performance, which unfortunately could not take place during SPRING 2024, Korean creator and composer Jaha Koo takes us on a culinary journey through various absurd and moving anecdotes, exploring food culture as a form of language that reveals the structure of a society.

Haribo Kimchi is the first performance part of SPRING Days, a new concept from SPRING Performing Arts Festival, in which activities are organized throughout the year in Utrecht with local partners.

Thet ticket sales for this performance were organized by our partner Theater Utrecht.

Theater Utrecht

Video

The heady aromas of a soup simmering and steaming, the short, sharp sounds of a knife slicing spring onions at high speed, the hissing and sizzling of mushrooms on a scorching fire. In Haribo Kimchi, we find ourselves in a pojangmacha, a typical late-night snack bar that can be seen scattered across the streets of South Korea. There we meet several lost souls: A YouTuber, an eel, a toad and a rice cooker. They take us on a culinary journey, exploring food culture as a form of language that reveals the structure of a society. In several absurdist and touching anecdotes, they recount the diaspora of Kimchi culture, cannibalism during the great famine, the searing pain of unadulterated racism and the deep umami taste of home. 

After the Hamartia Trilogy (2021), in which he delved into the far-reaching imperialism in East Asia, the South Korean theatre maker and composer Jaha Koo returns to Utrecht with his latest creation. In his typical hybrid style, combining music, cutting-edge video and robotic performers, the artist reflects on cultural assimilation with all its conflicts and paradoxes. In an exceptional performance that plays with all the senses, Jaha Koo alters our perception of food for good.

https://www.campo.nu

Contextual programme

In addition to the performance itself, SPRING is also organizing a contextual programme with an aftertalk, a workshop and a reading group. Read more about the full context program here.

Aftertalk

After the performance on Saturday September 21, SPRING Academy, in collaboration with Theatre Utrecht, is organising an aftertalk with artist and performer Jaha Koo.

Reading Group on Food in South-Korean Literature

SPRING and bookstore Savannah Bay are cohosting a Reading Group on September 20 between 19:00 and 21:00 with the books The Vegetarian by Han Kang and I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee. Come together for a cozy Friday evening, where we collectively read stories that feature food and culinary practices as a main character.

Workshop ‘Storytelling through Kitchen Practices’ with Jaha Koo

Creator Jaha Koo will give a workshop on storytelling and ‘kitchen practices’ on Monday September 23.

Full context programme

Reviews

Haribo Kimchi received four stars in the Volkskrant! Annette Embrechts wrote: “Performer Jaha Koo cleverly mixes his childhood memories with Korean cooking in ‘Haribo Kimchi’. In the intimate solo performance, Koo shares his with computer music interspersed story of his departure from Korea, his homesickness, his feeling of being nowhere at home.” Read the full review here (in Dutch).

The performance also received four stars on 8weekly, in a review written by Gigi van Erven Dorens. “Haribo Kimchi turns the kimchi hype back into culture. In a playful, funny and honest way, Jaha Koo shows his story behind the hype and cultural charges of this delicious dish. After this performance, kimchi won’t taste the same.” Read the Dutch review here.

 

This performance is made possible by:

“Haribo Kimchi is a happier story about people who have had to leave their roots than most accounts we get to see of displaced people. Like a picaro, the first-person narrator punches his way through life, goes through funny anecdotes, and finds support in good food.”

Tuur Devens, Theaterkrant

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Artist

Jaha Koo

Credits

Concept, text, direction, music, sound & video Jaha Koo

Performance Gona, Seri, Haribo & Jaha Koo

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

Production CAMPO

 

Coproduction Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Rideau de Bruxelles, Theater Utrecht, SPRING Performing Arts Festival (Utrecht), Festival d’Automne à Paris, Théâtre de la Bastille (Paris), Tangente St. Pölten – Festival für Gegenwartskultur, &Espoo theatre (Finland), International Summer Festival Kampnagel (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

The prototype of the eel was developed as part of Innovation:Lab’s funnel in co-production with Theater Utrecht and creative technologists Adriaan Wormgoor & Willem Vooijs.

Images Jaha Koo, Bea Borgers

Motion on Motion off