Jaha Koo

A tragic and humorous lecture performance about friendship and loneliness in South Korea’s technological meritocracy, featuring three talkative rice cookers.

In his youth in South Korea, Jaha Koo, who was born in 1984, experienced one of the country’s most severe economic crises. It was followed by structural reforms to liberalize the economy in accordance with the stipulations of the International Monetary Fund and led to countless violently suppressed protests. Shortly before the performance artist and composer moved to Amsterdam to study at the renowned DasArts academy, his best friend committed suicide: South Korea’s suicide rate has risen dramatically, especially among the young, as a result of the pressure to perform in the country’s competitive economy. Until today, the country has the highest suicide rate in the world.

With his unique sense of humor – and in dialogue with three modified Cuckoo-brand rice cookers, an item responsible for serving the daily portion of rice in almost every South Korean household – Jaha Koo manages to create a touchingly personal exploration and smart analysis of a society that, frustrated and without any regard for consequences, works hard for its gross domestic product to be part of a global economy.

For more about what it means to live in a world being globalized more economically than democratically, see the conference HEIMATPHANTASIEN starting on Sat. August 18.

CUCKOO production leaflet (PDF download)