Artist Seals Himself in Glass Bottle at Paris Olympic Stadium

Amidst the headline-grabbing feats of strength and spectacle at the Paris Summer Olympics, performance artist Abraham Poincheval has entered the arena with a stunt of his own. Poincheval’s work pushes the limits of mental and physical endurance. For his latest performance, he sealed himself in a giant glass bottle. He intends to remain inside for ten consecutive days.

Abraham Poincheval planned the performance in tandem with the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. He moored the glass bottle on a waterway in full view of the Olympic Stadium. The bottle is nineteen feet long and about six feet in diameter. He brought just enough rations of food, water, and first aid supplies to last ten days. The bottle is also equipped with a compost toilet, as well as a miniature wind turbine and solar panels that provide basic lighting and ventilation.

La Bouteille explores contemporary notions of privacy and intimacy—or, more accurately, the increasing lack thereof in the age of social media. Poincheval envisioned this performance as an analog version of the popular 24/7 livestream. It addresses “how we live knowing we’re being observed at all times,” he told Agence France-Presse.

Poincheval is “Suspended in Opposition to the Rhythm of the Olympics”

Transformed into this year’s Olympic Stadium, the storied Stade de France is at the heart of the Paris Summer Olympics. Abraham Poincheval chose this location so he could engage with all the sights and sounds—and the highs and lows—of the ongoing games. “My approach is to lead a life embarked in a kind of vessel, like a solo crossing in this object,” Poincheval told Le Parisien. “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.”

The Canal Saint-Denis is one of the busiest waterways in the city. Naturally, the unexpected appearance of a giant floating bottle with a man living inside it will garner public attention, particularly amidst all the Olympics hoopla. “This installation is in a public space, where I’m continually interacting with passers-by and residents of a city undergoing transformation,” Poincheval said. “I’m open to conversations with anyone who wants to engage.”

Abraham Poincheval was born in 1972 in Alençon, France. He subjects himself to extreme acts of endurance situated in traditional art world contexts, such as museums or public sculptures. The French contemporary artist’s latest stunt at the Paris Olympics is not the first time he has entombed himself in a tiny vessel of his own design. Nor is it the first time he has been inside a bottle for days on end. In 2015, Poincheval floated up the Rhône River from France to Switzerland while encased in a bottle. Previously, in 2014, Poincheval spent nearly two weeks inside the belly of a taxidermied bear carcass. In 2017, he spent one week confined to the hollowed-out interior of a rock at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.