Daphné MANDEL (French, b. 1975) has been living and working in Hong Kong since 2008. She completed her degree in architecture and urban planning in Versailles in 2000. MANDEL explores the in-between spaces that fall neither into the rural nor the urban. They are the fringes, the transitional landscapes at the edges of Hong Kong. Her artworks incorporate contemporary digital support and tactile traditional techniques, like painting and collage. This conceptually echoes Hong Kong’s urban aesthetic: one that is a juxtaposition of old and new, heritage and contemporary, derelict and polished. Her works are often infused with

aesthetics of illusions, fantasies and poetry.

 

MANDEL’s works have been exhibited in Taipei Dangdai (Gallery EXIT, Taipei, 2024), Art Basel Hong Kong (Gallery EXIT, Hong Kong, 2022, 2023 and 2024), ART021 (Gallery EXIT, Shanghai, 2023), Their Memories (Gallery EXIT, Hong Kong, 2024), Hong Kong Time Rift (Gallery EXIT, Hong Kong, 2022), Small is Beautiful XXXIX (Flowers Gallery, London, 2021), Photofairs Shanghai (Pékin Fine Art, Shanghai, 2019), Shek-O Sublime (Gallery EXIT, Hong Kong, 2019), Hong Kong Dimensions (Blue Lotus Gallery, Hong Kong, 2018) and Hong Kong Vanitas (Hong

Kong Museum of Medical Sciences, Hong Kong, 2017).

 

MANDEL co-founded the Paris based landscape architecture and urban planning firm Gilot & Mandel Paysage. Together with her partner, she was awarded the ‘Best Young Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture Professionals’ by the French Ministry of Culture in 2006.

 

Daphné MANDEL co-directed with Guy Bertrand a short documentary film entitled Cha Guo (茶粿) that celebrates the hidden world of a Hong Kong rural village. The film was premiered at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, followed by screenings at the Apple Store and Asia Society Hong Kong. MANDEL is currently designing permanent art installations for the Kwu Tung MTR station, commissioned by the MTR Corporation.