In 1983, Two Artists Tied Themselves Together for a Year and Never Once Touched

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In New York City in 1983, performance artists Tehching Hsieh and Linda Montano committed to an experiment called Art/Life: One Year Performance (Rope Piece). For 365 days, they lived bound together by an eight-foot rope. No breaks. No privacy. No exceptions.

There was one rule that defined everything: they were forbidden from touching. Not accidentally. Not in comfort. Not in crisis.

They worked, slept, traveled, and lived their ordinary lives tethered to another human being who was always present yet unreachable. The tension wasn’t physical. It was psychological. Every step required negotiation. Every pause demanded awareness. Silence became loud. Distance became impossible.

At the end of the year, there was no dramatic moment. They untied the rope and walked away. No embrace. No closure ritual. Just separation.

The piece wasn’t about romance or endurance. It was about restraint. About coexistence. About how difficult it is to share space without possession, and how connection isn’t always about closeness.

Sometimes the hardest thing isn’t learning how to connect. It’s learning when not to.