South Korea is on everyone’s lips worldwide – from street food, K-pop and cinema to cosmetics. Jaha Koo, however, turns his attention to lesser-known sides of the country. With subtle irony and documentary precision, the theatre artist, performer and filmmaker tells stories beyond the familiar images. His internationally acclaimed works explore Korean identity through the perspective of someone who has spent many years living between cultures. For his art of combining personal experience with social questions in a poetic and deeply human way, Jaha Koo received the International Ibsen Award in 2026, one of the most important honours in international theatre.
In HARIBO KIMCHI, Koo tells of the tension between his roots and the present. In a typical Korean street-food stall (pojangmacha), he prepares a dish and invites a few audience members to taste it. The simmering ingredients fill the space with Korean aromas, while Koo transforms the connections between palate, kitchen and culture into a multilayered stage language. As a cook on stage and through filmed anecdotes that lead as far as Brussels and Berlin, he uses gentle humour to show his search for a place between Europe and Korea, Haribo and kimchi. The piece also touches on loneliness, longing and experiences of discrimination. Yet the mirror he holds up to us is a smiling one. In the end, Koo must face the high-tech mischief of gummy bear, eel and snail – and the audience gets to taste the results of his cooking. A delicious evening!

Concept + Text + Direction + Music + Sound + Video: Jaha Koo
Performance: Gona, Haribo, Eel, Jaha Koo & two guests
Dramaturgy: Dries Douibi
Set + Research Assistance + Media Technology: Eunkyung Jeong
Artistic Advisor: Pol Heyvaert
Technical Coordination: Korneel Coessens
Technical Team: Bart Huybrechts, Tom Daniels, Jasse Vergauwe
Production Management: Wim Clapdorp
English Editor: Jason Wrubell
Snail Animation: Vincent Lynen
Created at: Tangente St. Pölten, 7 June 2024
Production: CAMPO
Co-production: Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), Rideau de Bruxelles, Theater Utrecht, SPRING festival (Utrecht), Festival d’Automne à Paris, Théâtre de la Bastille (Paris), Tangente St. Pölten – Festival für Gegenwartskultur, & Espoo Theatre (Espoo), Internationales Sommerfestival 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

Supported by the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government through Cronos Invest and the Flemish Government