BIOGRAPHY
« If you want to find the secrets of the Universe
think in terms of frequencies,
energies and vibrations»
Nicolas Tesla.
AN EXPLORER OF VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE
Olivier Kauffer is curious. As an explorer of the visible and the invisible, passionate about creative arts and unconventional experiences, he collects projects that are a little crazy. Climbing the Everest alone with a 3D camera, going in search of a new animal species in Mexico or abseiling into the deepest cave in the world... nothing scares him, everything stimulates him.
Painter, director, author, singer, Olivier Kauffer is a hyperactive, self-taught artist, passionate about the diversity of media and techniques. But Olivier Kauffer does not only have a taste of adventure : he is also fascinated by the unknown. He is an motionless traveler who explores subtle worlds, from the creative evanescence of art to the occult dimensions of our world.
FROM PAINTING TO CINEMA
Olivier has always been different. Being a hyperactive child with high potential, he struggles to adapt to the sclerosing structures of the school system. This difference worries his parents, who believe school is the guarantee of his success.
Around the age of 10, Olivier finds in painting a way to express his originality. He tries watercolor and Indian ink, and thus releases his creativity and his sensitivity. Until the age of 14, he paints many paintings on paper. But this passion for art disturbs his parents, who see it as a symptom of his abnormality. So much so that his father decides to send him to a psychiatrist, determined to bring him back onto the right path.
From that moment, Olivier becomes obsessed with becoming normal. He leaves painting aside, as it seems to be the stigma of his atypical personality. Like an anthropologist, he begins to observe the world and people to identify which behaviours are socially acceptable. By doing so, his sense of observation sharpens and he begins to imitate high-profile personalities he sees in the media. Alone in his room, he listens to the great singers and actors of the time and tries to impersonate them. Quickly, he masters imitation techniques. Taking hold of this new art, he perfects himself and starts performing on various Parisian stages.
In the evening, he listens to pirate radios and discovers Radio Corsaire, a pirate radio directed by a group of passionate young people, for which he will quickly become an animator (at the age of 15). At 18, his talents as a DJ and an imitator allow him to hang out with all the comedians on the rise at the time and he is even considered to be part of the "Class". At the same time, he works as an adverts voice artist for Skyrock. He meets Franck Samama, a music and comedian producer, who offers him a record deal.
Olivier Kauffer signs his first single, "Latex" which turns out to be a critical success in the industry. This incursion into music gives him the opportunity to give a try to video arts for the first time. He directs the music video of his single with a group of friends. This new art immediately ignites his passion. Olivier embarks on a career as a filmmaker.
FROM CINEMA TO PAINTING
In 1989, Olivier Kauffer starts his own production company, KOM Productions. He records fashion shows for designers such as Franck Sorbier and Jean Colonna. He also makes various music videos for artists such as Michel Delpech, Les Infidèles, Paul Anka or Cheb Kader, for labels like Trema. He also writes scripts for music videos for Renaud, Touré Kunda or Francis Lalanne. These experiences allow him to develop skills in special effects. Always willing to push the boundaries of technology, he is one of the French pioneers of computer generated imagery.
At the end of the 1990s, Olivier Kauffer makes computer generated imagery for a production company in Sweden, where he decides to move and settle for 3 years. Upon his return to France, he completes his first documentary, "A veterinarian like no other", produced by TF1 and Odyssée. The success awaits as more than 8 million viewers tune in during the first broadcast.
A few years later, he makes a 90-minute documentary about the circus arts, "La folie Bouglione", for Paris Première. This noteworthy documentary turns him into an expert in circus arts recording. He records many representation at the Cirque d’Hiver and some documentaries including "The 150th Anniversary of the Cirque d’Hiver". In 2010, he co-directs, along with Fabien Remblier, "A night at the circus". Shot during the 18th Massy International Circus Festival, the film is released in more than 170 theatres. But above all, it becomes the first French feature film in 3D.
In 2011, the film is nominated in several international festivals such as the 3D Corean Festival, 3D Beyond (Germany) or the 3D Film Festival of Los Angeles (USA), alongside James Cameron's "Avatar". It receives the prize for the best European film at the 3D Stereo Media Festival (later renamed Stereopsia, Belgium).
Following this success, he begins writing a series of documentaries about the mysteries of the world. He offers to set off, a camera in his hand, to explore the most fascinating mythical sites on the planet. A Canadian production company takes an option to buy the series and produces the pilot with Kabo Productions.
Alongside his filmmaker career, Olivier Kauffer comes back to his first love: painting. In 2010, the retrospective of Kandinsky's works held at the Georges Pompidou Center deeply impacts him. Just as he leaves the exhibition, he stops by a shop and buys watercolors and Indian ink. He starts painting again immediately. To this day, he has painted nearly nearly 200 pieces, all on paper.
PAINTING
"Approach"
Olivier Kauffer creates in the moment, in a few movements. He throws paint without thinking about the nature of the pieces he produces. Driven by a sort of trance in which the mind no longer holds power, he does not think of the colors he will use, nor the shape, features or patterns he will obtain. Having the colors and tools in front of him, he lets the current intuition and feeling of the body guide him.
Olivier Kauffer surrenders entirely, without analysis or restraint. Connected to his soul, he delivers his emotions as raw as they come. He captures on canvas the purity of the Being detached from the Ego. Through his work, he restores the flow of Life that circulates through his bodies, with power and authenticity.
"Techniques and Media"
Olivier Kauffer's favorite material is Water. As a founding and guiding element, water is the realm of emotion and the womb of life-carrying femininity. Femininity equals gestation, intuitiveness, spontaneity and expansiveness. Olivier Kauffer immerses himself in this creative energy when he is paints.
Inspired by the work of the artist Masura Emoto, Olivier Kauffer is inhabited by the belief that water remembers the bodies, frequencies, and materials it passes through. Thus, the water mixed with the paint soaks up with the energies of the artist, at the moment of creation.
Mixing watercolor with acrylic, or sometimes Chinese inks, he shapes his work using trowels, knives or brushes. He sometimes works directly with his hands, or holds his brushes with both hands at the same time.
"Philosophy"
In the universe, everything is vibration. The harmony of the world is only disrupted by the interferences of the mind. For Olivier Kauffer, sincerity is the purest way to express the truth of an emotion.
The gesture is a wave of form that fills the surrounding air. The air sticks to the water of the paintings to calcify the vibrations of the moment. This is why the accuracy of the gesture, the purity of the action, the fluidity of the movement, are essential to Olivier Kauffer’s creative process.
His aim is to share of sensation, the transmission of the wave, of the wave of creative energy that fed his approach. He firmly believes that the frequencies thus thrown on the canvas will radiate around them for a long time, beyond our eyes and into our hearts.