“I studied film at UCCA in Maidstone and I absolutely loved it,” she says, in her rather quirky Italian accent. “I had the most beautiful time of my life. I went there as a mature student and it honestly was an amazing experience. The people I met, the incredible minds I got in touch with – these young kids from all over the world – coming up with the most amazing stuff.”
“After the course ended, everyone was like: ‘what next?’ But there was nothing next. No opportunities, no nothing. Many would have been very happy to carry on working here in Maidstone – given the choice – but there wasn’t any. The town and the art college operate completely separately. I was always thinking that if there was the opportunity to keep these people here, how amazing would Maidstone be: how colourful, how happening, how buzzing.”
Antagonism towards artists and a fear amongst people of embracing creativity is something Margherita takes personally; a social wound that needs healing. Hence her project: ‘Artists Don’t Bite’ – which she sees as a blueprint applicable to other locations in the uk and abroad and the launching pad for a range of site specific projects.
Margherita has exhibited at film festivals and galleries nationally and in Europe and she’s proud of her links with Kent, her adopted area, where she wishes to carry on working.
“I want to work where I live. I don’t want to feel like if I have to go elsewhere to work. Also, if I’m in the right environment I flourish and I become very productive. If my environment rejects me I can’t produce.”
She acknowledges that the artist is often an outsider. And as an Italian artist living in England she feels it keenly
“I’m already a foreigner. I have experienced coming here from another place, trying to survive here, managing to get myself included and accepted.”
'Artists Don’t Bite' is about building bridges and have fun with it: to make artists more visible and to give people an opportunity to think about their town and how they could make it better.
Written by: Mark Hewitt
Photographer: Jemina Marriot
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