Tehching Hsieh is renowned for a series of works that revolutionised the conceptual, physical, aesthetic, and temporal limits of performance art. His body of work includes six performances that the artist defines as his ‘lifeworks’. For Asian Avant-Garde Film Festival 2025, Hsieh will participate in three moderated discussions held at the same time on three consecutive days. Each talk will be accompanied by images and clips and will focus on two of his ‘lifeworks’, all of which are held in the M+ Collection.

On Friday, 30 May, Hsieh will discuss his first two ‘lifeworks’: One Year Performance 1978–1979 (Cage Piece) and One Year Performance 1980–1981 (Time Clock Piece).

In Cage Piece, Hsieh confined himself to a 3.5 x 2.7 x 2.4-metre wooden cage inside his studio for 365 days. The cage contained only a washbasin, a bed, and a bucket for relieving himself. A friend brought him meals, emptied his refuse bin, and took daily photographs of Hsieh.

In Time Clock Piece, Hsieh installed a mechanical clock in his studio—the kind used by businesses to monitor employees’ working hours—and forced himself to punch the clock every hour, every day, for 365 consecutive days. By adhering to his self-imposed rule of marking each hour, Hsieh could never travel far from his studio, nor could he sleep for more than an hour.

This first discussion with Hsieh, for Tehching Hsieh’s Lifeworks—Cage Piece and Time Clock Piece, will be moderated by Silke Schmickl, CHANEL Lead Curator of Moving Image. The conversation will take place in English.