Cohen was born in 1962 in Johannesburg, South Africa and lives in Lille, France. He is a visual and performance artist, staging interventions in the public realm as well as in gallery and theatre spaces.

He has performed extensively on the festival circuit, at such prestigious venues and events as the Katharsis Festival in Spain; Euro-Scene Leipzig Theater Festival in Germany; the National Opera of Bordeaux; National Arts Festival in Makhanda; Théâtre du Rond-Point, Montpellier Danse; the Festival d'Automne, Centre Pompidou, Paris; Festival d'Avignon; Munich Opera Festival, Bavarian State Opera; Festival Escena Contemporánea, Madrid; Bozar in Brussels; Oktoberdans festival, Bergen, Norway; and Canadian Stage in Toronto.

Cohen participated in the 11th Havana Biennale (2012) and the first Aichi Triennale in Japan (2010). Notable group exhibitions include Plus que parfaits ('More than perfect') at Opéra de Bordeaux (2020); IncarNations: African Art as Philosophy, BOZAR Centre for Arts (2019); Lignes de vies – une exposition de légendes at Musée d'Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne (2019); the EVA International at Irish Biennial of Contemporary Art (2018); Disguise: Masks and Global African Art at Seattle Art Museum and Brooklyn Art Museum, USA (2015-16); Chercher le garçon at Musée d'Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne, France (2015); Josephine Baker and Le Corbusier in Rio – A Transatlantic Affair, Museu de Arte do Rio (2014); Black Milk: Holocaust in Contemporary Art at Museum for Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Denmark (2014); My Joburg at La Maison Rouge, Paris, and Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (2013); Revolution vs Revolution at Beirut Art Centre, Lebanon (2012); No Fashion, Please: Photography between Gender and Lifestyle at Vienna Kunsthalle (2011); and Dada South? at South African National Gallery, Cape Town (2009-10); and Under Pain of Death at Austrian Cultural Forum, New York (2008).

From 2003 to 2008 Cohen was an associated artist of the Ballet Atlantique/Régine Chopinot in La Rochelle, France. He has participated in residencies at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, and the Center for Performance Research in New York, and has conducted workshops in Body Scenography at CIFAS (International Centre for the Performing Arts), Les Brigittines, Brussels, and Haute école des Arts du Rhin, Strasbourg, among many other institutions.

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