The idea for URBAN FICTION (2004-2005) arose when Danwen Xing made a train trip through Europe. She realized that cities all over the world are starting to look increasingly alike. Housing people has chiefly become a matter of putting as many of them as possible in impersonal high-rises. According to the photographer, dwellings of this sort only come to life if the residents put something of their own personality and drama into them. In order to get a head start on this, she put herself into maquettes of future Chinese residential projects. She provides the buildings with atmosphere by playing various fictional roles. 'One time I am an overworked secretary,' she says, 'and another time I am a young woman who had murdered her love by accident.'

In her work Danwen Xing (China, b. 1967) focuses on the lightning changes in China's urban scene. Danwen Xing began photographing, a discipline that is still in its infancy in China, in 1989.

Courtesy Scalo, Switzerland, Galerie Piece Unique, France