A Note from the Creator
Haribo Kimchi began with the idea of placing two very different kinds of food next to each other to think about identity, cultural collision and hybridity. Kimchi has been with me since the moment I was born. It carries time within it through fermentation, along with layers of memory and history. Haribo, on the other hand, represents a taste and habit I formed later in life after moving abroad. The line between fermentation and decay is very thin. It is in this fragile space that culture can either be preserved or transformed. When something we acquire later in life meets cultural inheritances that existed before we were born, something new can emerge from that friction. For me, food is a kind of language. It is not only a way to survive, but also a way to express memory, emotion and identity. As I moved from a rural town to Seoul, and later from Korea to Europe, I experienced some of the deepest cultural differences at the dining table. And in those moments, I kept returning to the same question: Who am I? In this work, I think about this through the idea of what I call ‘jelliness’. Jelly is soft and flexible. When pressure is applied, it changes shape, but it does not break. It bends and then slowly returns. It is neither solid nor liquid, but something in between. Haribo Kimchi is a metaphor for an identity that is constantly fermenting and changing. Identity is not something fixed. It is alive, always in process.
Credits
Concept, Text, Direction, Music, Sound & Video Jaha Koo Performed by Gona, Haribo, Eel, Jaha Koo, two guests Dramaturg Dries Douibi Scenography, Research Collaborator & Media Operator
Technique Bart Huybrechts, Tom Daniels, Jasse Vergauwe Production Coordinator Wim Clapdorp English proofreading Jason Wrubell Snail animation Vincent Lyne Images Bea Borgers
Eunkyung Jeong Artistic Advisor Pol Heyvaert Technical Coordinator Korneel Coessens
Jaha Koo
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