Jaha Koo has won the Ibsen Prize, wide­ly regar­ded as the pre­mier the­a­ter award. 

Jaha Koo is a South Korean the­a­ter artist, com­po­ser, and video artist who­se work spans mul­ti­me­dia per­for­man­ce and tech­no­lo­gy. In 2015, KWP took Jaha Koo under its wing and sup­por­ted his solo pie­ce Lolling and Rolling, mar­king the start of a four-year col­la­bo­ra­ti­on. During the­se four years, Jaha cre­a­ted works inclu­ding Cuckoo, which KWP pro­du­ced with sup­port from Campo and Beursschouwburg. 

Jaha is recei­ving the Ibsen Prize becau­se, accor­ding to the Ibsen Prize com­mit­tee, ​“in a world all too often charac­te­ri­zed by ​‘for’ and ​‘against,’ Jaha emp­ha­si­zes the­a­ter as the spa­ce in bet­ween.” This is evi­dent in Cuckoo, whe­re Jaha enga­ges in con­ver­sa­ti­on with his tal­king rice coo­kers by hac­king their voi­ce com­mands and noti­fi­ca­ti­ons. This leads to bit­ters­weet, humo­rous dia­lo­gues in which he jour­neys through the past twen­ty years of Korean history.

We wish Jaha the best of luck and con­gra­tu­la­te him who­lehear­ted­ly on his well-deser­ved award