27.4.26 - Jimmy Robert performs James Lee Byars, ‘The Mile-Long Paper Walk’ at Bourse de Commerce, Paris
Programmed to accompany the current exhibition, Clair-obscur, at Bourse de Commerce in Paris, Jimmy Robert will perform James Lee Byars’ 1965 work The Mile-Long Paper Walk on Wednesday 29 April. This will be the first performance of the work in Europe, and the second time Robert has participated, following a 2014 activation at MoMA in New York.
Throughout his career, James Lee Byars (1932–1997) created a body of performance work that forms a fundamental part of his oeuvre. The Mile-Long Paper Walk is the first ‘performable object’ conceived by the artist, taking the form of a folding ruler made of sheets of Japanese paper. Fully unfolded, it forms a 152-metre-long line that seems to extend to infinity. The work was first activated by American choreographer Lucinda Childs in the atrium of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh in 1965, but remained largely unknown for many years.
James Lee Byars, The Mile-Long Paper Walk
Performed by Jimmy Robert
Wednesday 29 April 2026, 7.30pm
Rotunda
Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection
2 rue de Viarmes
75001 Paris Further information
Throughout his career, James Lee Byars (1932–1997) created a body of performance work that forms a fundamental part of his oeuvre. The Mile-Long Paper Walk is the first ‘performable object’ conceived by the artist, taking the form of a folding ruler made of sheets of Japanese paper. Fully unfolded, it forms a 152-metre-long line that seems to extend to infinity. The work was first activated by American choreographer Lucinda Childs in the atrium of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh in 1965, but remained largely unknown for many years.
James Lee Byars, The Mile-Long Paper Walk
Performed by Jimmy Robert
Wednesday 29 April 2026, 7.30pm
Rotunda
Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection
2 rue de Viarmes
75001 Paris Further information