MARGOT ERRANTE Margot Errante is an Italian-born performance artist and photographer. She traveled throughout the world and lived in China for 22 years, since the age of 19. She now spends most of her time between Hong Kong, Milan and Lugano. Her body of artistic works explores human nature and identity. She calls attention on the psychological engagement between the photographer and the sitter, which often "leads to unpre<strong>di</strong>ctable results." She developed a passion for photography from an early age, and began shooting landscapes at 10 when she was given her first camera, a compact Olympus. Eclectic by nature, Margot speaks five foreign languages fluently, inclu<strong>di</strong>ng Chinese, and became a researcher in cultural anthropology, applying her understan<strong>di</strong>ng of human behavior to her portraiture. Professionally, Errante started out as a travel photographer in the late 1990s while studying Chinese at Beijing Language and Culture University. But photography was not her only interest: in 2004 she moved for a year to an in<strong>di</strong>genous village deep into the jungles of the Sino-Burmese border, where she conducted ethnographic research on the Wa people. The photographic fruits of this study culminated in a successful exhibition held in Como, Italy, in 2005, to raise funds for the village in which she lived. That same year, Margot was selected as the photographer for a <strong>di</strong>plomatic mission sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs – a three months' journey from Italy to Japan by car, with a stopover in North Korea that won the team a Peace Award. Her experience in the me<strong>di</strong>a spans wide: she worked as a freelance photojournalist and television correspondent. She produced a short documentary on Canada's First Nations and during the 2008 Olympic Games she hosted a successful television program - Beijing Express - broadcast by Class CNBC. While witnessing the massive reconstruction of Chinese cities, she became interested in architecture and urban development, and collaborated with many local architecture firms. In 2008 she contributed to the publication "Beijing Architecture & Design", and started writing about the anthropology of architecture for the Italian magazine TALE&A up until 2010. Margot taught foreign languages in Chinese universities. In 2010 she wrote a Chinese language textbook for DeAgostini E<strong>di</strong>tore, then moved to Hong Kong where she opened her photographic stu<strong>di</strong>o. That same year she co-curated the Hong Kong Pavillion at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition of Venice Biennale. Margot taught <strong>di</strong>gital photography classes at Istituto Dante Alighieri and lectured at Insight School of Interior Design, in Hong Kong. Her photographs have been featured on China National Geography, the South China Morning Post, Home, PRC, Ming, Domus China, Abitare China, Hinge, Mark, Capital, Perspective, Wallpaper, Loft Publications, and more. __________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 15
MARGOT ERRANTE “Ode to Snow” 2008, cm 80x60 E<strong>di</strong>tion of 3+2AP Giclée print on Hahnemühle paper “Beijing’s Bird Eye ” 2008, cm 80x60 E<strong>di</strong>tion of 3+2AP Giclée print on Hahnemühle paper __________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 16
Change language