A Subjective History of Gdańsk

A Subjective History of Gdańsk is a hallucinatory and subjective presentation of the city of Gdańsk in Poland, a place historically shaped by competing ideologies that have repeatedly renamed and reconstructed it. The work is presented as a factual lecture, framed through the perspective of a former shipyard worker experiencing Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AIWS), a neurological disorder that distorts the perception of body size and spatial scale.

The lecture interprets Gdańsk as a collective hallucination induced by AIWS, proposing an alternative urban plan in which scale and time are staggered rather than adhering to the conventional pseudo-rational logic that dominates contemporary urban planning in the city. Through this lens, the familiar streets and landmarks of Gdańsk are reimagined, highlighting the city’s layered histories, political influences, and the subjective experience of its inhabitants.

The project was presented as part of the Alternativa 2011–2012 festival, a contemporary art festival in Gdańsk that focused on experimental and interdisciplinary approaches to art and culture. The festival invited artists to work across the boundaries between history, urban space, and perception, creating site-specific works and lectures that engaged with the city’s social and architectural context. Ander Bojen & Kristoffer Ørum’s contribution combined personal narrative, historical research, and speculative urban theory to question how collective experience and perception shape the city.

The work was documented in a video presentation and included in the festival’s program alongside other international and local artists working in experimental modes of storytelling and urban critique.