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These notes, divided into chapters, constitute the story of the time spent with Cong Yàn in China. They witness the unique relationship between a stranger and his guide. The stranger tries to understand the symbols and the idea of things and places, but, inevitably, he mixes his own culture codes with those opening to him.

Watching traditions and social rules or listening to memories helps to build an image of China. This image only seems to be subjective…
When describing the life of only one person, the attention is focused on the individual whereas China is usually perceived as an indefinable mass.
The meeting between Cong Yàn and Wiktoria Wojciechowska is decisive: ”Around Cong Yàn, there’s China”.

Wiktoria Wojciechowska, multimedia artist working with photography, video, collage, installation and books, was born in Lublin, Poland. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Warsaw.
In 2015, she won the Oskar Barnack Leica Newcomer Award for her project Short Flashes : portraits of drenched motorcyclists captured in the streets of Chinese cities. Afterwards, this work also received several other awards.
Between 2014 and 2016, she works on the Sparks series : a portrait of contemporary war based on individual stories during the Ukrainian conflict. Sparks was recently exhibited at the New Discovery Award of the Rencontres d’Arles in 2018 and awarded with the Prix du Public and the Prix Madame Figaro. Sparks also received the Lensculture Emerging Talent Award and the Treilles Foundation Photography Award.
Since 2015, she has been working on China. These series, reunited under the title of Chinese Chapters, question the individuality and the traditions of the country.

Wiktoria Wojciechowska has been nominated for many prestigious scholarships, such as Joop Swart Masterclass 2016, Unseen Young Talents, Lucie Foundation Emerging Artists, Visura Grant, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize and Foam Paul Huf Award. She participated in artist residencies in Iceland, China and France.

Her works were presented during solo exhibitions and international art and photography festivals in France, Poland, Germany, Italy, Iceland, Latvia, China and published in magazines such as British Journal of Photography, Vice, Leica Fotografie International, FT Weekend Magazine, Guardian, China Life Magazine.

Her first book ”Short Flashes” was published by Bemojake in May 2016.