Steven Cohen
Dancing Inside Out

Steven Cohen (b. 1962, Johannesburg, South Africa) is regarded as the most prominent performance artist of his homeland. In his work, whose radical mode of expression is reminiscent of the strident performances of representatives of the original American queer movement, he engages political and religious discrimination. Cohen himself leads the life of a member of a minority in multiple ways: he is a South African with white skin, a homosexual and a Jew. The response of the artists to discrimination is provocation. His medium is his own body, which he charges with graphic symbolism by means of grotesque costumes, strange mask-like make-up and bizarre accessories. In the project space karlsplatz Cohen presented his performance Dancing Inside Out live at the exhibition opening and on the nine following days. The half-hour performance deals with the persecution of Jews under National Socialism. Dancing Inside Out is Cohen's first performance in Austria. The exhibition also showed other costumes and several of his best-known videos: Chandelier, Broken Bird and Maid in South Africa.