MEDIATHEK

Außerdem auf dieser DVD: Chandelier und Maid In South Africa I. Dancing Inside Out (30min, 2004) Cohens Antwort auf Diskriminierung ist Provokation. Sein Medium dabei ist der eigene Körper, den er mittels grotesker Kostüme, bizarr maskenhafter Schminke und skurriler Accessoires mit plakativer Symbolik aufladet. In "Dancing Inside Out", setzt er sich mit der Judenverfolgung durch den Nationalsozialismus auseinander. II. Chandelier (16min, 2002) Steven Cohen spent several months in 2001 reconfiguring a wrought iron chandelier into a wearable tutu in a studio in Newtown, Johannesburg; a short walk from a squatter camp under the M1 highway. During this time, the artist made a point of walking through the informal settlement regularly, and when the chandelier was ready, he chose this location for its inaugural performance. When the artist arrived wearing his chandelier, teetering on fetish black heels, with a bare bum and his face painted, he discovered men yielding crowbars employed by the government to evict the squatters and destroy their makeshift homes. Cohen’s performance was not planned to coincide with the forced removal of this community. However, the event was to some degree fortuitous for the artist because it made the contradictions of the ‘new’ South Africa, which he wished to expose, even starker. “I’m messing with a society that is more shocked by the violence of my self-presentation as monster/queer/unrepresentable or whatever than by the actual violence they live with every day. It’s almost as if, because I’m alive and present, I’m more real and more threatening than reality” (Interview with Brenda Atkinson, Mail & Guardian, August 1997). (Quelle: www.davidkrutpublishing.com) III. Maid In South Africa (13min,2005) Eine ältere afrikanische Frau tritt auf. Sie zieht sich ihre traditionellen Gewänder aus - entkleidet sich fast in Gänze und macht zu poppigen Rhythmen den Hausputz. Zusätzlich zu dieser DVD befindet sich in der Hülle eine weitere mit Ausschnitte aus vier weiteren Performances: Goatfood God Pan I und II; Broken Bird; I wouldn´t be seen dead in that! (jst)