French artist tries bizarre new feat
The French artist who spent a week entombed inside a rock began an even more bizarre feat Wednesday -- sitting on a dozen eggs until they hatch.
Abraham Poincheval aims to become a "human hen" by sitting and laying on the eggs inside a glass vitrine at a Paris modern art museum until the chicks emerge.
The performance, called "Egg", could last three to four weeks, with the artist getting only a half-hour break every 24 hours to keep him from cracking.
He is also on a special diet rich in ginger so he can keep the eggs at a minimum of 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
Poincheval, 44, made headlines earlier this month after declaring his seven days inside a rock a mind-altering "trip".
This time, however, he looked distinctly ill at ease as he stepped into the vitrine in the Palais de Tokyo museum in his socks.
He quickly wrapped himself in a heavy traditional Korean cape and sat on a "laying table" specially designed to stop him from accidentally crushing the eggs.
While Poincheval described his time inside the limestone rock as blissful, he acknowledged that sitting on the eggs for such a long time had him worried.
"I have never been so directly exposed to the public before. Usually I am inside something. But every performance is a first," he told AFP.
His father Christian acknowledged that it was a test of his mental strength, with the usually amiable Poincheval avoiding eye contact with the crowds gathered around the glass case.
"He is going into himself," his father said, describing the experience of observing his son through the vitrine as "like watching him on TV".
He revealed that when Poincheval was a child he had a pet chicken, and promised that any "hen-men and hen-women" his son brings into the world will be allowed to live out their natural lives on his smallholding in the west of France.
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