Benno Kaiser studied art at the Saint-Gallen Fine Arts University. He began making a name for himself in the realm of singular art from 1970, thanks to his ephemeral sand sculptures: these he built up over summer vacations, taking pictures of them before the tide floated them away. In parallel, Benno Kaiser creates and paints wood or papier-mâché sculptures. His papier-mâché works include the figure of Charles de Gaulle, done in the playful and highly original fashion that is his trademark. Having left Zurich with his wife in 2001, he now resides in southern France, near a beach where he pursues his work with sand.