Mariagrazia Costantino is a sinologist, an art and film critic and a film scholar. She holds a bachelor degree in Chinese Studies (University of Rome La Sapienza), a Master degree in Media and Film (SOAS, University of London) and a Ph.D. in Film Studies (Roma Tre University). From 2000 she has been conducting researches on Chinese contemporary art, music and film. Mariagrazia has written extensively about art and film from East Asia; she is co-author of “Arte Cinese Contemporanea” (Electa), the first monograph about Chinese contemporary art published in Italy. Her Ph.D. dissertation, which she completed during a period as visiting scholar at SOAS, concerns the ideological representation of urban spaces in film and video from East Asia. Her critical approach revolves around two main moments: one is the cultural and historical contextualization of a work, through the positioning of the author (whom she believes not dead at all), the other is the detection of epiphany disclosed through the medium – the recalibration of reality through the lenses, what that Jean Epstein defined “photogénie”.

She currently lives and works in Shanghai as artistic director at OCAT, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal. She is contributing editor of Genda 真的 magazine and editorial board member of East Asian Journal of Popular Culture (EAJPC).