An Italian performance artist has turned the search for a needle in a haystack into a piece of performance art, at a contemporary art gallery in Paris.

Sven Sachsalber has done similar stunts before, such as spending 24 hours in a locked room with a cow, and sawing off tree branches while perched on top.

Palais de Tokyo director Jean de Loisy told the BBC's Hugh Schofield: ''It is a symbol of the search we are all doing for something, in the labyrinth in which we are.''