Olivia Hyunsin Kim HELLO – Olivia Hyunsin Kim/ddanddarakim

North Korea appears to many as an intangible country, inhumane and completely closed off. Based on research and interviews, the participatory performance Hello questions superficial and one-sided assumptions about North Koreans.

In three differently designed rooms of the Sophiensæle, visitorsin small groupsget toknow the situation of various people whose mobile autonomy has been and continues to be restricted by the state. Using a specially developed system, the audience will find blind dates that tell semi-fictional stories beyond grand state acts, propaganda, parades and other showcase measures and also provide insights into everyday North Korean culture. Through music, movement, customs, games and food, Hello invites viewers to make encounters beyond political dividing lines, to rethink prejudices and to imagine thepersonal and complexlives of North Koreans.

How do political borders shape identities and how are authoritarian systems subverted? Between official narrative and personal experience, between the known and the hidden, invisible migration stories and hybrid biographies that connect North and South Korea and reach as far as Europe become legible in the course of the performance.

Artistic direction, choreography, performance Olivia Hyunsin Kim
Co-direction, video design, lighting Jones Seitz
Dance, performance Hyemi Jolee, Ji Sun Hagen, Jung Sun Kim
Stage, costume Luca Plaumann
Sound art Tatiana Heuman
Technical direction Gilda Coustier – Dangerous work
App programming bleeptrack & Leo G. Alonso
Dramaturgy Maria Rößler
Outside Eye Marielle Schavan
Access consulting Hyemi Jolee
Production management Christo Schleiff
Press and public relations Kerstin Böttcher
Artistic collaboration Somi Dubuque
Graphic design Christian Cattelan
Interpreters for German and German Sign Language Aniella Tiedje, Mille Jepsen