In 2002 Cohen found the diary a young French Jew kept between 1939 and 1942 on the flea market.

It begins as a holiday project but very soon the tone totally changes. “For 3 years he describes the daily life during the war”, Cohen says. “The information is not new but it is a confirmation of the net that slowly closed around the Jews in those days”.

As a white, Jewish homosexual South-African Cohen recognizes himself in the writings of the young man. “Oppressor and oppressed at the same time”, he says himself. With the diary in hand he then made a piece that balances between performance, testimony, investigation and poetic rattling. Extravagant costumes and make-up, video images, a lightshow and... rats play a prominent role. The whole is put not ón the stage but under it.  “The diary deals with hidden things and people. Therefore, only a secret place is suitable”, he thinks, “a place that the audience usually doesn’t get to see”.

The controversial performance artist Steven Cohen lives and works in Lille. His performances draw attention to marginalized phenomenons in society. Starting-point is his own identity.