“I see time as being an inner, terrestrial journey. My approach means working out for myself what is going on
in the world, a bit like Voltaire’s Candide.” Abraham Poincheval

During his solo performances, Abraham Poincheval pushes back his physical and mental limits. For him, life in autarky, enclosure, immobility or the progressive loss of senses are all means to explore the world and human nature. As with the giant bottle, inside which Abraham Poincheval is currently going up the river Rhône, inhabitable sculptures in which, or on which, he has lived for several days, will be scattered throughout the spaces of Palais de Tokyo.

For his solo show at Palais de Tokyo, Abraham Poincheval will be presenting two new performances entitled Pierre and Oeuf (‘‘Stone’’ and ‘‘Egg’’). By testing out the artist’s body, they will lead him to experience the temporalities of the animal and mineral worlds. Abraham Poincheval will be pursing his exploration of closed, confined spaces by living inside a rock installed in Palais de Tokyo for a week. Surrounded by visitors and the art center’s activities, the artist will vanish inside the denseness of the stone, which will enclose him like a protective envelope or an isolation cell. In the other performance, Abraham Poincheval will measure himself up against the rhythm of life. While experiencing immobility, and the waiting during a gestation, he will sit on hen’s eggs which will hatch out thanks to the heat of his own body.


Curator: Adélaïde Blanc