Léo Beaudoin is a Cologne based artist mainly focusing on animation and film, but also active in neighbouring mediums such as music, video games or comics.

Biography

Born in 1992 in Verneuil sur Avre (France), Lairlair is a nickname given through friends and family. After a Bachelor in Information Science, Audiovisual and Digital Media at the Uni of Valenciennes (France), Léo starts working in the Parisian animation studio Maneki Lab in 2012. It is a good place to put into practice the technical knowledge gathered while studying. The small scale of the studio gives a lot of freedom to explore different roles and take part in various types of productions: 2D animation, title design, compositing, camera mapping… After a period of 2 years in the field of animation and video creation, he moves to London, where he works as an audiovisual technician in a more corporate environment: the Royal Bank of Scotland. But creativity and art call him back to school. In 2017 Léo starts his curriculum at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne (Germany). He gets a glimpse of many different approaches to creativity and mediums, may it be performance, experimental music, virtual reality, film, and of course, animation. In 2018 he self publishes his first illustrated book “The Incredible Adventures of Mister Owl”. A lighthearted story, driven by automatic writing, which seems to mirror many facets of his personality. In 2019, he collaborates with Karin Frommhagen on a VR installation representing one section of a series of 8 mini theater plays called “Auf Durchreise” (in transit). His next project also has to do with developing: Derelict is a video game where the player assumes the role of a visitor in a post apocalyptic digital museum. After co-directing his first animated documentary short film, Leylet Europa, he is now working on his next project: Isle of Penguins, a documentary video essay about his fascination for penguins, and the implications it has on the world around him.

Exhibition and works list

• Leylet Europa – 2023 – Animated documentary short film
• PR(O)_REGRESS – 2022 – Video Mapping for the LWL Futur21 Festival
• Derelict – 2021 – Video game. Shown at the Temporary Gallery for the exhibition Talk to me in 2022
• Video Mapping Festival – 2019 – Animation projected on the opera in Lille (France)
• Room 37 – 2019 – VR Installation for the series of 8 performances in the Chelsea Hotel (Cologne, Germany)
• The Incredible Adventures of Mr Owl – 2018 – Comic book