Jaha Koo (born in 1984) is a South Korean theater/performance maker and music composer. His artistic practice oscillates between multimedia and performance, all of which include his own music, video, text and installation. His performances are closely interweaved with politics, history and his own personal issues.

Since 2014, Koo has been working on his Hamartia Trilogy. This trilogy thematically focuses on how the inescapable past tragically affects our lives today. The first part of the trilogy, Lolling and Rolling, was first presented by Zürcher Theater Spektakel in 2015. The second piece, Cuckoo (at FIT 2019, read more and watch the after-show talk), premiered at Steirischer Herbst Festival in 2017. Already in Lolling and Rolling (at FIT 2021) and Cuckoo, Jaha Koo zoomed in on themes that embody 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. The final part of the trilogy is The History of Korean Western Theater (FIT 2020, read more and watch the after-show talk).

He’s been living and working in Belgium for the past few years. The History of Korean Western Theatre is his first production created at the Ghent-based and internationally touring arts centre CAMPO. GuJAHA is the pseudonym of Jaha Koo as a music composer. His most recent EP Copper and Oyster was out in 2015.

< photo Kristof Vadino

@ FIT

Lolling & Rolling
2021 Edition
01.10 – 10.10

The History of Korean Western Theatre
2020 Edition
29.09 – 11.10

Cuckoo
2019 Edition
24.09 – 06.10