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. 
 
 By testing out the artist’s body, they lead him to experience the temporalities of the animal and mineral worlds. Abraham Poincheval is 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 vanishes inside the denseness of the stone, which encloses him like a protective envelope or an isolation cell. In the other performance, Abraham Poincheval measures himself up against the rhythm of life. While experiencing immobility, and the waiting during a gestation, he sits on hen’s eggs which hatches out thanks to the heat of his own body. 
 
 For his solo show at Palais de Tokyo, Abraham Poincheval is also presenting two new performances: Pierre and Œuf (‘‘Stone’’ and ‘‘Egg’’). 
 
 Pierre (‘‘Stone’’), from February 22 to March 1st, 2017 
 
 “The impression we have that our speed is not linked to us, or our own viewpoint.” Pierre is an expedition into the heart of the mineral world. Abraham Poincheval attempts for the first time to live inside a rock for a week, thus taking his experimentation of enclosure and isolation to another level. This large piece of limestone, exhibited in the middle of the Palais de Tokyo, has been sculpted to fit to Abraham Poincheval’s figure. It is displayed open, before and after the performance, thus revealing the survival material it is equipped with. During the performance, it becomes at once a space capsule allowing the artist to undertake an inner journey, a protective casing, and an isolation cell. After his logistical, physical and mental preparation, the experience that the artist goes through is unforeseeable. But instead of wanting to achieve an exploit, Abraham Poincheval is trying to escape from human time and experience mineral speed. 
 
 Œuf (‘‘Egg’’), as of March 29, 2017, for a probable duration of 21 to 26 days 
 
 For the first time in his explorations, Abraham Poincheval is confronting the world of the living: within the exhibition spaces of the Palais de Tokyo, he will be sitting on hen’s eggs until they hatch out. By replacing an animal, he will experience a gestation time, varying between 21 and 26 days. Abraham Poincheval will be sitting or lying in an enclosed space, a vivarium which looks like a display case. He will be covered by a traditional Korean cloak, made by the artist Seulgi Lee and surrounded by provisions. Limited in his movements, the artist will seem inactive to the visitors. He will be like Toine, the antihero of the Guy de Maupassant short story of the same name (1885), immobilised by a heart attack and forced by his wife to hatch out eggs. 
 
 Curator: Adélaïde Blanc 
 
 A monographic book published by Palais de Tokyo is accompanying this show. ||||| French performance artist Abraham Poincheval is never short on ideas of how to isolate himself in strange ways. He once lived in a giant plastic bottle as it traveled along the Rhone River. For two weeks, he lived inside a bear sculpture, subsisting on a bear’s diet of worms and beetles. For another project, he spent an entire week underground with a small stack of books, a headlamp, some freeze-dried food, and water. 
 
 For his latest project, Poincheval will live inside a limestone rock for a week. His body shape has been carved out of the rock, which is equipped with a toilet and an air vent. There is also storage space for his food (stewed fruit and puree) and water. The performance piece will be on display at Palais de Tokyo Contemporary Art Museum in Paris. He’s scheduled to enter the rock on Feb. 22. 
 
 Poincheval says his solo performances aim to explore how the concept of time and space are different for humans, animals, and objects (like a limestone rock). 
 
 “The purpose is to feel the aging stone inside the rock,” said Poincheval. “There is my own breathing, and then the rock which lives, still humid because it was extracted not so long ago from the quarry. So there is that flow, that coming and going, between myself and the stone.” 
 
 A few weeks after he emerges from the rock, Poincheval will sit inside a glass encasement and incubate chicken eggs with his body heat until they hatch. That project is expected to last for 21 to 26 days. 
 
 Watch our video to see the rock and hear the artist describe his plans. ||||| Replying to @dk3lly Well I'm using the gallery's wifi right now, but I doubt it can penetrate the rock. That must be the worst part.
– A French artist has kicked off a weeklong stay inside a 13-ton boulder. Sounds awful, right? Well, it's only the start of what Abraham Poincheval calls "an inner journey to find out what the world is." After seven days confined to a sitting position in a limestone rock shaped like an egg at Paris' Palais de Tokyo museum—a feat that began Wednesday—Poincheval will spend 23.5 hours a day sitting on chicken eggs in order to hatch them, a process that's expected to take three or four weeks. While it certainly won't be a comfortable endeavor, Poincheval should generally know what to expect. He's previously spent eight days buried underground, a week on top of a 65-foot pole, and two weeks inside a stuffed bear, reports AFP. Poincheval says he's been preparing for months for the "Stone" performance—with the goal "to feel the aging stone inside the rock," he tells Quartz—and has all the kinks worked out. In addition to some padding, according to one witness, he'll also have access to air, a toilet, an emergency phone line, and a heart monitor as he munches on dried meat, soup, and other liquids. Once outside the egg, he'll eat plenty of ginger—allowing his blood vessels to expand, increasing body heat—to help him keep the chicken eggs at a minimum of 98 degrees while inside a glass encasement at the museum in a performance dubbed "Egg." After the eggs hatch, the chicks will "go and live with my parents," Poincheval says. (This performance art was probably less comfortable.)