OÏO is a truly unique experience where liquid paint and the cinematographic medium come together to create a painting in motion: a cinepainting! Jets of paint catapulted into the air become perceptible to the human eye through high-speed camera and computer. A bold technical device that allowed Simon Goulet to create a remarkable piece of art, highly acclaimed throughout the world for its "extraordinary technical inventiveness that takes the image and music on an emotional, dizzying trip toward great creativity" (International Federation of Film Critics, Annecy, 2003).

Cinepainting or Cine-painting is a « canvas » in which the paint is in constant movement. Therefore, it must be “recorded” on media that can capture that movement, i.e., in the case of OÏO, cinematographic film. This is not an animated movie effect where the operator moves the paint (dry or wet) between each frame, but rather a recording of the “free” motion of the paint in the air under the effect of gravity. Therefore, the paint is not filmed “taking off” or “landing”… it is captured directly in flight.

It is a painting without a canvas where the paint freely comes out of thin air. The artist can decide when the material takes on its full aesthetic value.

The experience calls out to the spectator in that the architecture of shapes and colours only takes on meaning in the observer's imagination.

OÏO takes inspiration from the writing of Hubert Reeves on the creation of the universe.

OÏO cinepainting moves from chaos to organization, from the abstract to the figurative. Movement gave birth to time, and time gave birth to history.

OÏO needed eleven-and-a-half years to make (1992-2003).

540 litres of paint, 56 colours, 7000 metres of film, 33000 digitized images, 360 frames per second, a catapult, lots of friends, passion and patience equals...nine minutes of fun!