2023 SEOUL PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL

How our irrevocable past tragically leaves its mark on the future

Since 2014, a South Korean artist Jaha Koo had worked for 7 years on the Hamartia Trilogy, in which he focuses on how our irrevocable past tragically leaves its mark on the future. Hamartia means 'tragic flaw or shortcoming' in Greek. It pertains to dramatic literature was first used by Aristotle in his Poetics and originally depicts the flaws or defects of a character and portraying these as the reason of a potential downfall in Greek tragedy. Koo borrowed the term to interweave his own thematic concept into completely different guises throughout his three performances Lolling and 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 theatre performances, Jaha Koo intertwines personal stories with historical, political and sociological facts through his own music, video, text and robotic objects. Often themes that entail a clash of Eastern and Western culture: from the cutting of tongue ties to make it in the West, to the heavy personal toll of Western interference in the macroeconomic field.


Lolling and Rolling
In the early 2000s, there was a big controversy concerning children’s tongue surgery for a better English pronunciation in South Korea. The surgery is known as a lingual frenectomy. Some people thought that it is possible to have a better English pronunciation through the surgery, especially for the “r” which is a non-existing consonant in the Korean language. Lolling and Rolling is about linguistic Imperialism and its cultural silencing. Jaha Koo investigates this absurd practice, and branches out to many related topics, including war, colonial history and English’s status as the key language of political power. From this exploration emerges a polemic about the subaltern’s “inaudible voice” and its embattled position in our world. Lolling and Rolling was premiered at Zürcher Theater Spektakel in 2015 as the first part of the Hamartia Trilogy.
Premiere Zürcher Theater Spektakel(Swiss, 2015) Rework Year 2021


Cuckoo
A journey through the last 20 years of Korean history told by a bunch of talkative rice cookers. One day when his electric rice cooker informed him that his meal was ready, Jaha Koo experienced a deep sense of isolation. ‘Golibmuwon’ 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, Koo 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.
Premiere Steirischer Herbst (Graz, 2017)


The History of Korean Western Theatre
Celebrating the centenary of Korean theatre in 2008, the South Korean theatre maker / composer Jaha Koo realized that there is actually no space for Korean theatre tradition: what is regarded as Korean theatre is largely determined by the Western canon. But why are the South Koreans so proud of this Western interpretation? And why does everyone keep referring to Shakespeare? It raises questions about tradition, self-censorship and authenticity. In this final piece of his Hamartia trilogy, Jaha Koo resolutely focuses on the future. Meticulously, he exposes the tragic impact of the past on our lives, unveiling the small cracks in modern Confucianism - an ideology that continues to define the moral system, way of life and social relations between generations in South Korea. With a new generation of South Koreans in mind, he attempts to break with a tradition full of self-censorship and keeping up appearances. Because only when based on an authentic version of history, he can pass on a future to the next generation. Like the performances Lolling & Rolling and Cuckoo, which respectively focused on South Korea's past and present, The History of Korean Western Theatre is an intelligent documentary theatre performance in which Jaha Koo interweaves personal stories with historical, political and sociological facts. Often themes that contain a clash of Eastern and Western culture: from cutting string of tongue to make it in the West, to the heavy personal toll of Western interference on a macroeconomic level.
Premiere Kampnagel Internationales Sommerfestival (Hamburg, 2020)