Koo Ja-ha takes Ibsen win as opportunity to focus on new K-pop production

Theater and performance maker Koo Ja-ha [BEA BORGERS]

 
[INTERVIEW] 
 
By the time Koo Ja-ha learned he had won the International Ibsen Award, the Korean director’s schedule was already booked solid through 2029, with his multimedia productions continuing to tour stages across Europe and beyond.
 
Based in Ghent, Belgium, Koo has spent the past decade building a distinctly international career. His “Hamartia Trilogy” — “Lolling and Rolling” (2015), “Cuckoo” (2017) and “The History of Korean Western Theatre (2020) — has logged more than 300 performances across some 20 countries. His more recent work, “Haribo Kimchi," which premiered in 2024, has already reached roughly 100 performances. 
 
Though rooted in the Korean language and shaped by Korean personal and social narratives, Koo’s works have consistently drawn strong responses from audiences regardless of nationality or background.
 
That reach recently culminated in a historic milestone, with Koo becoming the first Asian recipient of the International Ibsen Award.
 
The award, established by the Norwegian government in 2007, is widely regarded as one of theater’s top honors. Past recipients include Peter Brook, Peter Handke and Jon Fosse. The prize carries a purse of 2.5 million Norwegian kroner ($257,000).
 

A scene from ″The History of Korean Western Theatre″ (2020), directed by Koo Ja-ha [OK SANG-HOON]

 
“When I think of the previous winners, it still doesn’t feel real. Rather than a destination, this award feels like an opportunity to reflect on the time that has brought me here," Koo said in an interview on Monday, reflecting on the recognition.
 
Critics have described Koo’s work as “innovative and deeply human,” noting its blend of humor, poetry and technological imagination to explore questions of identity, belonging and life after colonial history. His productions are often labeled as hybrid or cross-disciplinary theater, though his approach resists easy categorization.
 
His productions combine performance with music, video, text and objects, often placing these elements on equal footing. Koo himself frequently appears onstage as a performer.
 
In “Cuckoo,” named after the well-known Korean rice cooker brand, Koo shares the stage with three rice cookers — all treated as characters. The title takes its name from a well-known rice cooker brand in Korea. The work uses the appliances, a familiar symbol tied to domestic life and labor in Korea, to explore the country’s social changes in the two decades following the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
 
Koo said he gave voice to the rice cooker as “a symbol deeply connected to home, labor and survival,” allowing emotions to be conveyed “more honestly and reach further than when expressed directly by humans.”
 
His path to theater was not linear. He first worked in indie electronic music, film and theater companies before graduating from the Korea National University of Arts’ School of Drama in 2011, where he studied theory. He later earned a master’s degree in directing from the Amsterdam University of the Arts.
 
His debut work “Lolling and Rolling," which examines Korea’s fixation on English and the lingering effects of linguistic imperialism, drew early attention and invitations to international festivals. That momentum led him to CAMPO, an art center in Ghent, where he became a resident artist. The organization serves as a major hub for contemporary performing arts in Europe, functioning as a venue, production house, agency and residency space.
 
Koo approaches each project with a focus on the broader audience experience. 
 
“I approach each one-hour performance with the sense of taking responsibility for five to six hours of the audience’s evening, working to deepen reflection and expand the audience experience, while continuing to question and explore the boundaries between the theatrical and the non-theatrical,” Koo said. 
 
“Even when people watch the same work, their backgrounds and lives allow for completely different experiences. Recognizing that diversity and learning to understand each other’s differences is why I make theater.”
 

A scene from ″Cuckoo″ (2017), directed by Koo Ja-ha [RADOVAN DRANGA]

 
His next project, “Born to be K to be Pop,” is set to premiere in 2027. The production will examine Korean society and hyper-capitalism through the lens of the K-pop industry and its fandom culture. Led by Belgian production company LOD, the project brings together partners from 15 countries and marks Koo’s first large-scale work for venues with more than 1,000 seats.
 
Tour plans are already in discussion with around 30 institutions, including Lincoln Center in New York, the Barbican Centre in London and the Sydney Opera House. After showcasing “Haribo Kimchi” at last year’s Seoul Performing Arts Festival, Koo said discussions are underway for performances in Korea during the 2027-28 season.
 
The International Ibsen Award ceremony will take place on Sept. 26 at the National Theatre in Oslo, Norway. Koo will present a performance of “Cuckoo” on the same stage the following day.
 
Koo also provided written responses in addition to the video interview. The following is a translated transcript of the Q&A.
 

Theater and performance maker Koo Ja-ha [BEA BORGERS]

 
Q. The Ibsen Award jury cited your work’s 'quiet, yet deeply political' dimension, as well as its use of 'humor, poetry, and technological ingenuity.' Which aspects of your work do you think they were responding to, and did it come across as you intended?
 
A. I was struck by how diverse the jury was. It consisted of seven members from different fields — ballet, traditional theater, contemporary experimental performance, academia and criticism — who had followed my work over a long period of time in cities like New York, London, Brussels and Taipei. I was told that they had seen most of my major works in person. It was interesting to see how those different perspectives and experiences came together to form a shared impression.
 
As an artist who explores innovation in the performing arts and centers my work on questions about contemporary issues, I believe interpretations and responses can vary. Still, I felt that the expressions used by the jury captured an important aspect of my work.
 
 
In 'Cuckoo,' the decision to give voice to rice cookers is particularly striking. Why did you feel objects, rather than humans, should speak?
 
When we look at the world we live in, non-human elements such as technology, objects and systems already shape our emotions and lives in profound ways. Yet on stage, the structure still tends to center only on humans, and that felt unfamiliar to me. So instead of a human, I gave a voice to the rice cooker — something that is always present in our lives but does not speak.
 
In Korean society, the rice cooker is an everyday object, but it is also deeply connected to home life, labor and survival. When that object begins to speak, audiences tend not to see it simply as a character. They project their own experiences and memories onto it. I believe that in that process, emotions can be conveyed more honestly and reach further than when expressed directly by humans. For ‘Cuckoo,’ we actually hacked a Cuckoo rice cooker so that it could function as a performer on stage.
 
 
Your work clearly draws on personal experience, but you avoid explaining it directly. Why do you choose that approach?
 
The ‘Hamartia Trilogy,’ which I worked on from 2015 to 2021, shares a structure in which each piece begins with an individual narrative and expands into a broader social dimension. The sense of unfamiliarity that comes from the way those narratives are constructed may itself be the reason I chose this form. When I appear on stage, I am not there as an actor but as a creator performing the role of an actor. That choice is not something I impose in advance — it emerges naturally when the subject and form of the work require my presence. I stand on stage only when the work can exist in that way.
 
At the same time, even when my work begins from personal experience, I do not want it to remain only my story. It can also be someone else’s story in the present moment, or a fragment of a shared social experience. I try to find that point of connection and present it in a concentrated form within the theater through narrative and stage elements such as music, video, objects and installation.
 
I do not want my work to converge into a single explanation or conclusion. Rather, I hope that a synesthetic experience within the theater opens up different lines of thought for each audience member. The moment an experience is directly explained in language, I feel its meaning becomes fixed. So instead of explaining, I try to create a structure in which audiences can fill in the gaps through their own senses and memories. Even when people watch the same work, their backgrounds and lives allow for completely different experiences. Recognizing that diversity and learning to understand each other’s differences is why I make theater.
 

A scene from ″Haribo Kimchi″ (2024), directed by Koo Ja-ha [BEA BORGERS]

 
You gained recognition in Europe before Korea. How do you see that — is it a matter of the work itself or the environment?
 
It’s difficult to separate it into the work and the environment. I began working in Europe in a more sustained way, and naturally that’s where I first met audiences. Rather than one place being better or worse, it has more to do with the timing and context in which the work was first situated.
 
When I left Korea in 2011, what I felt was that there was less room for formal experimentation than there is now, and production structures were still strongly hierarchical and director-centered. Collective or individual modes of creation were relatively rare, which made it difficult to sustain the kind of work I wanted to pursue. That was one of the reasons I moved to Europe.
 
Since the mid-2010s, however, I feel there have been many changes and a wider range of experimentation among contemporary theater artists in Korea. At the same time, Europe is not a single unified scene — each country has very different contexts and conditions. My work is not necessarily mainstream even in Europe, and from a traditional theater perspective, there is still a certain tension toward multimedia or technology-based work.
 
My work is not created for a specific region. The same piece can be read and experienced in completely different ways depending on the country and the audience. So rather than focusing on where I was first recognized, I think it is more important to consider how the work meets different audiences and transforms through those encounters.
 
 
Some say your work aligns with contemporary European performance language. Do you see it that way?
 
This is a question I often get in Korea. But I have a somewhat different view of the idea of a ‘European performance language.’ Europe cannot be explained through a single framework, as each country has its own distinct cultural background and structure. The works introduced in Korea may reflect certain tendencies, but they do not represent European theater as a whole. In reality, there is a much wider range of forms and scenes.
 
Even in Europe, my work is often received as unfamiliar rather than as part of an established form. So rather than belonging to a specific ‘European’ language, I see myself as continuing to work in my own way across different contexts.
 
At the same time, I think it is also necessary to question the tendency to view ‘contemporary performance language’ through a Europe-centered lens. I have ongoing exchanges with artists in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. While each region has its own distinct approaches, there is also a shared sense of contemporaneity, exchange and solidarity.
 
Although there is relatively active exchange between Korean producers and those in other parts of Asia, I feel that collaboration at the level of production and presentation remains somewhat limited. Expanding that context could also broaden how we understand contemporary performance.
 
 
How will your activities evolve following the Ibsen Award, and what can you share about your next project? When can Korean audiences expect to see your work again?
 
I don’t think the direction of my work will change significantly after the award. Rather, I want to continue developing the projects that were already confirmed or in progress. At this point, my production and touring schedule is largely set through 2029.
 
I am currently working on a new piece, ‘Born to be K to be POP,’ with writer Jeong Eun-kyung, a longtime collaborator. It is scheduled to premiere in Antwerp in June 2027. The production is led by the Belgian company LOD and involves co-production partners from around 15 countries across Europe, Asia, Oceania and North America. Much of the touring schedule through 2028 is already planned, alongside ongoing tours of my existing works.
 
Over the past decade, I have spent more than five months each year on tour or traveling for work, moving through more than 20 cities annually. This year, however, I am reducing the number of tours and limiting new invitations to focus more on developing the new work. Even so, around 45 international performances are scheduled, and we are also preparing pre-production for another new project set to begin in 2029.
 
Like many international teams, we are also thinking about sustainability. Producers and companies are working to balance touring schedules and production timelines to manage team fatigue. From an environmental perspective, we try to minimize carbon emissions by organizing tours by region and reducing long-distance travel where possible.
 
As for Korea, discussions are underway for performances during the 2027–28 season. While details are not yet finalized, I hope to reconnect with Korean audiences in the near future.


This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KANG HYE-RAN [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]