In a performance that falls somewhere between Chris Burden's locker stunt during his heady student days, David Blaine's magic acts as extreme forms of self-denial, and a good old-fasioned sit-in, Chinese artist Xing Xin locked himself in small iron box on Venice's Murano Island on Monday night, there to remain for 49 days during the Venice Biennale.

Xing's action is as much political demonstration as it is performance art: He is protesting China's one-child policy, and to pass the time in his box, which measures roughly six-and-a-half feet long by three feet high and three feet wide — making it akin to the size of a coffin — he's counting the characters in the 150 books that constitute China's nine-year compulsory education program. Adding a voyeuristic aspect to the performance is the fact that there are cameras inside the box, allowing visitors outside to view the ordeal on two waterproof, outdoor televisions. (The box, a press release assures, is "specially constructed" to allow Xing to be fed and to relieve himself.)

Those cameras may not be necessary the next time Xing puts on this grueling performance. The current project is being sponsored by Adriano Berengo, director of the Spazio Berengo, a new glass museum that is set to open in the fall on the site where Xing's iron box currently stands. With Berengo's continued sponsorship, the artist plans to repeat the demonstration in a second box made of glass.

Sarah Douglas is Senior Correspondent for ARTINFO, Art+Auction, and Modern Painters.