French Performance Artist Seals Himself in a Giant Bottle for Ten Days Outside Paris’ Olympic Stadium

As competitors around the world show off remarkable feats of athleticism in Paris for the 2024 Olympic Games, French performance artist Abraham Poincheval is staging his own unique endurance test. Last Thursday, the 53-year-old climbed inside a giant glass bottle on the Canal Saint-Denis outside of the Olympic Stadium. His goal is to stay inside for 10 days.

Just like the Olympians, he tells Agence France-Presse, “I am going to experience the excitement, the moments of joy, and the moments of disappointment too.” The performance, called La Bouteille (or in English The Bottle), takes place in a 20 foot-long container that has a diameter of 6.5 feet. The artist’s temporary new home has been sealed with a giant cork and sits atop a small platform connected to shore.

“My approach is to lead a life embarked in a kind of vessel, like a solo crossing in this object,” Poincheval tells Le Parisien’s Claire Guédon, per Google Translate. “It’s a time suspended within these great moments of exaltation and extreme energy of the athletes, it’s a time suspended in opposition to the rhythm of the Olympics.”

In an increasingly digital and connected world, Poincheval’s performance will examine ideas of privacy, public space and intimacy. “Many people put their lives on social media,” he says, per the Brussels Times. He hopes to explore “how we live knowing we’re being observed at all times.”

The artist is no stranger to long stays inside unusual and claustrophobic places. In 2014, he lived inside a taxidermied bear for 13 days. In 2017, he stayed in a similar large bottle for a week and that same year he encased himself in a giant 12-tonne boulder.

According to Le Parisien, his current abode does have a few amenities, including a small wind turbine, solar panels for light and ventilation and a compost toilet. The latter he says, he’s undergone “real training” to use “without anyone noticing.”

Poincheval has enough food and drink to last him for all 10 days and his stay will end on August 3. Although he is locked inside, he welcomes visitors to come speak with him.

“This installation is in a public space, where I’m continually interacting with passers-by and residents of a city undergoing transformation,” he tells Le Parisien. “I’m open to conversations with anyone who wants to engage.”

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Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Her work has been featured in WBEZ, Chicago magazine, Rebellious magazine and PC magazine.