At the center of Dancing Inside Out—Steven Cohen’s live performance for the opening of the exhibition at Project Space Karlsplatz, followed by nine additional days—is a confrontation with the persecution of Jews under National Socialism.

Dancing Inside Out marks Cohen’s first live performance in Austria. The exhibition also features a selection of costumes worn in his performances, along with some of his most recognized video works, including Chandelier, Broken Bird, and Maid in South Africa.

Steven Cohen is widely regarded as South Africa’s most prominent performance artist. His work—radical in form and expression—draws on the aesthetics and political urgency of early queer performance movements. Cohen uses his art to challenge political, cultural, and religious discrimination. His identity embodies multiple forms of marginality: he is South African, white, homosexual, and Jewish.

Born in 1962, Cohen responds to discrimination with deliberate provocation. His body serves as both subject and medium—transformed through elaborate costumes, grotesque mask-like makeup, and surreal accessories into a living symbol of defiance and vulnerability.