48hours to find needle in haystack

PERFORMANCE artist Sven Sachsalber has until midnight tonight to find a needle in a haystack as part of a performance at a Paris art centre Palais de Tokyo.

The show started at midday yesterday and will end at midnight tonight regardless of whether he has found the needle, which was hidden by Palais de Tokyo’s director, Jean de Loisy. Mr de Loisy described the show as “a symbol of the search we are all doing for something.”

The Italian artist who lives in New York, is known for his physical stunts, often inspired by his upbringing in the Italian South Tyrol: he has previously spent 24 hours in a room with a cow for a show, eaten poisonous mushrooms, sounded the hour on a mute bell for 24 hours, and sawed off branches of a tree he was sitting in.

The gallery calls Sachsalber's art: "often funny, often serious and sometimes both."

The performance is one of several works created for the ‘Inside’ exhibition which runs until mid-January at the gallery in Paris.

Photo: Aurélie Cenno