"Tasty", a public performance by Steven Cohen, Sept. 19th 2015

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"O tempora ! O mores !" (Cicero, 63 BC) I had never seen a public performance of the South-African artist Steven Cohen, and it was seriously lacking to my general culture. Although he got several prizes for his public performances and an Ampersand Foundation Fellowship in NYC in 2003, I heard his name only in 2013 for "Coq/C.ck" an "uninvited public intervention" near the Eiffel tower : he danced naked with a rooster (a 'coq' in French) tied to his sex. It was art, but the police did not understood his art, and he spent 20 hours in a police station. He has been found guilty of sexual exhibitionism by a criminal court in 2014, but the court imposed no penalty because "he had not engaged in sexual acts". I am sure that animal lovers were pleased to know that the rooster had not been abused. I received an invite for a performance at the Regional Contemporary Art Collection. I hesitated a bit, but I told myself that I had an occasion to fill a gap. His today performance, "Tasty" was described on the invitation like "a toast to self-acceptance". About 250 persons were in the room, mainly students from Fine Art Schools and artists : contemporary art is a kind of closed environment nowadays. The artist entered with high heels and the star of David on his head and walked round the room while an answering machine was delivering threatening messages in English from people telling him to not wear the star of David during his performances. At the end, the wine for the toast(I suppose it was wine ?) came from his ass to an urinal (don't ask me for the trick), and he drank it when a yiddish L'Chaim (To life !) song was played, before breaking the glass on the floor and living the room. There was a buffet after the performance. I had no desire for a glass of wine and a toast, and I came back to home. At least, if someone talks of Steven Cohen, I will be able to say "The exhibitionist ? I have seen one of his public performances", and to look less outdated than my age might suggest. This is supposed to be culture. Have you seen a public performance of an artist ? Would you like to see one ? (The photo is mine)