--- description: He's got two days in Paris title: This Performance Artist Looks for Actual Needle in Actual Haystack image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Living](/tag/time-section-living/) ## Living Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Performance Artist Searches for an Actual Needle in an Actual Haystack by [Sam Frizell](/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 15, 2014 9:13 PM CUT by [Sam Frizell](/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 15, 2014 9:13 PM CUT In a very literal interpretation of the idiom “finding a needle in a haystack,” performance artist Sven Sacselber tries to do exact that. For about two days in a [gallery in Paris](http://www.palaisdetokyo.com/en/events/sven-sachsalber "undefined"), he is attempting to find an actual needle in an actual mound of hay. Performance art often straddles a fine line between brilliance and inanity. Marina Abramović adventurous “Rhythm” series and Joseph Beuys shamanic “I Like America and America Likes Me” are widely agreed to have achieved the former category. Will Sacselber’s piece do the same? Who knows. But we can hope that his straightforwardly titled “Performance” may spawn a new genre that literally depicts cliches. Perhaps three days of looking gift horses in their mouths is next on the agenda. Or maybe an enterprising camel would be willing to have his back broken by the last straw. You can catch a stream of Sachselber’s “Performance” below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3587321/performance-artist-actual-needle-actual-haystack/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3587321/performance-artist-actual-needle-actual-haystack/"},"headline":"Performance Artist Searches for an Actual Needle in an Actual Haystack","datePublished":"2014-11-15T21:13:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:17.596Z","description":"He's got two days in Paris","url":"https://time.com/3587321/performance-artist-actual-needle-actual-haystack/","keywords":["Living","Fine Art"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3587321/performance-artist-actual-needle-actual-haystack/","name":"Performance Artist Searches for an Actual Needle in an Actual Haystack"}}]}] ```