Charalambos Margaritis

I was born in 1985 in Cyprus. I graduated from the National Superior Fine Arts School of Paris (ENSBA) in 2012. My work is centered around printmaking, animated films, drawing and painting. In 2010 I studied the traditional icon painting techniques with the monk Paisios Agrapides in the Cell of Saint Archangels in Karyes of Mount Athos, where I resided for three months.
I taught drawing and animated film techniques to children from 8 to 15 years old during 2011 and 2012, as a part of the creative writing workshops of “La Cité des Mots”, organized by the writer Catherine Zoungrana in Paris. On December 2013, I participated in the event “Stopmotion” at the Centre Pompidou, during which I organized an animation workshop for children. I also worked with teenagers for the post-diploma program “AIMS” (Artiste Intervenant en Milieu Scolaire) of the Fine Arts Schools of Paris, that takes place in Saint Ouen (suburb of Paris). I have also taught drawing in HEC (Haute Ecole de Commerce).
In 2013 I worked as a member of the admissions jury for the entrance examinations of the Fine Arts School of Paris. I participated in several exhibitions in France, as the event “Graver Maintenant” in Reuil Malmaison in 2009, the second edition of the International Drawing Fair (FID) in Paris in 2010, the exhibition “Nulla Dies Sine Linea” in the library of the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Paris in 2011, the Salon of Poissy in Paris in 2013 and in all the Sarcelles’ Engraving Biennales since 2009.
In Cyprus I participated, in December 2013, in the exhibition “Othellos – Rebirth” that took place in the Othellos cinema theater, part of the European Capital of Culture of Paphos. In October 2014 I worked with the classical music ensemble“Trio Dell’Arte”, creating three animated shorts for three of their concerts in Nicosia, Limassol and Paphos. In April 2015 I participated in the Street Art Square Festival.
At the same time, I have created (alone and in collaboration with others) video clips for several musicians in Greece and in France, such as the group Active Member, Yiorgos Zambetas, the group Pulcinella, Ian Balzan and others. I am a member of the artistic collective “Miracle”, that is based in Paris but collaborates with a lot of artists (plasticians, poets, writers, philosophers and others) in many countries, such as Benin, Hungary and England.
My 2012 short animated film, “Workhouse”, was selected and presented in several festivals in Cyprus and abroad, such as the London Greek Film Festival, the International Motion Festival in Nicosia, the Con Film Festival in Philadepheia, the Lons Angeles Cine Fest and others. “Workhouse” was short-listed for the Norman McLaren Award in the BlowUp Chicago International Arthouse Film Fest in 2015. My animated short “Large Scale Absurdities Vol.1” has been selected in the IndieFEST Awards were it received the award of recognition in 2015. It was also selected for the festival “Good Things/Small Packages – A Night of Micro-Shorts” in North Little Rock, Arkansas. My vide-clip of Dionysis Farmakis’ song “A Shy Idea” was selected and screened at the Cyprus ComicCon in 2016 and in the “Other Worlds” Music Film Festival in Blackpool, UK. The film “Documentary for a press that was never found” which I created in collaboration with Yiannis Sakellis, was selected in the London Greek Film Festival and in the AM Egypt Film Festival, in Cairo.
In 2015 I co-founded the Kimonos Art Center in Paphos, Cyprus.
In 2017 I curated the project “The Big Mosaic” for the European Capital of Culture PAFOS2017. I also collaborated with Chrysostomos Neofytou, Thibaud Verbe, Yiannis Sakellis and Zacharias Mouzakis for the audiovisual concert “Janus”. I founded the international short animated film festival “The Animattikon Project” on October 2017. In November 2017 I created the visuals for the audiovisual presentation “Re:mains”, a project by Christina Athinodorou.
I have been living in Cyprus since 2015 where I work at the Kimonos Art Center, teaching printmaking, animation and comics.