Spring at CAMPO is about to start, and so are the performances on tour! After a busy year with several tour performances a month, from Bruges to Amsterdam to Warsaw, from London to Dublin, from Paris to Zurich, ... Jaha Koo is biting the dust this month in Canada with no less than six (!) showings of Lolling and Rolling

 

Lolling and Rolling
Jaha Koo

In Lolling and Rolling, Jaha Koo immerses himself in the phenomenon of tongue-tie surgery, an operation performed in South Korea to pronounce the English tip of the tongue-r. The absurdity of an operation like this, shows the impact of linguistic imperialism in Koo’s native country.

In 2021, the theatre maker, videographer and composer Jaha Koo has re-worked the documentary (that was originally conceived in 2015) into a live performance in which he now also explores the more extensive process that goes along with the surgery. 

Lolling and Rolling dwells upon English being the capital language in political power, and what this means for the ‘inaudible voice’, that of the subaltern. Jaha Koo unveils a practice which tries to silence these minorities, taking their cultural agency. Because the denial or devaluation of a language also instigates the loss of an identity, of a minority, of a population group. In this way the subaltern are colonized not only linguistically, but also culturally.

The performance plays from 19 to 21 January at Push International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver, and then from 24 to 26 January in Montreal. In between touring Jaha is working on something new, planned for 2024!