Yankai Chen

This project focuses on the transition that homes represent, exploring the complex relationship between memory, belonging and loss. Yankai documents demolished, abandoned, ruined houses in China. The images capture the disappearance of these physical spaces, as well as the rupture of the bond between people and the land. Through the interweaving of ruins, artifacts and characters, the work reveals the situation of dispersion and reconstruction in the process of urbanization and modernization, reflecting how the 'home' has been transformed from a residence into a trace of memory. This book project triggers broader philosophical reflections on belonging, time, existence.