People will people you

In a performance that feels like a farewell, Steven Cohen reflects on his life and work. Dressed in his usual flamboyant costume and makeup, he speaks for the first time. The account of his family history and his exposure to the violence of the oppressive systems he has experienced or witnessed intertwine with a retrospective of his most memorable pieces. Little by little, introspection gives way to doubt, and the symbolic act of laying bare one’s soul becomes concrete. From the act of deconstructing the myth and dropping the mask, he creates a sculpture. And he illuminates more brightly than ever what has always been at the heart of his work: the fragile power of human vulnerability.

Steven Cohen 

Steven Cohen was born in 1962 in South Africa, and now lives in France. Performer, choreographer and visual artist, he has orchestrated interventions in public places, in art galleries or on stages, notably at the Festival d’Automne, the Center Pompidou in Paris, the ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival, the National Arts Festival in Makhanda, the Théâtre du Rond-Point in Paris, the Montpellier Danse festival, the Festival d’Avignon, the Munich Opera Festival at the Bavarian State Opera, the Escena Contemporánea Festival in Madrid, the Bozar in Brussels, the Oktoberdans festival in Bergen, and the Canadian Stage in Toronto. He has participated in residencies at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, and the Center for Performance Research in New York. His visual artwork has been regularly exhibited internationally since the 1980s. He also runs workshops around the world that question the body as a scenographic object. His work brings to light what lies on the margins of society, beginning with his own identity as a gay, Jewish, white, South African man.