Russian Bang / Ryska smällen (2012)

Russian Bang / Ryska smällen is a series of photographs about how the bombing of the Eriksdal area in Stockholm by the Soviet Air Force in 1944 was conveyed to the public. There are disagreements about the reasons behind the bombing. It was generally explained as a navigation error. In this photographic series, the trees are portrayed as eyewitnesses of an event that has been erased from the collective consciousness in Sweden. A small sign at the site mentions the incident, giving little weight to the fact that Allied forces performed military action on Swedish soil at the end of the Second World War.

In 1944, Soviet bombers accidentally dropped two bombs in this area. No one was hurt, hundreds of windows were broken, and the detonations were heard all over town. The red brick house directly below this sign – an old pump house and the only building left of the large sewage treatment plant – has been named after this event. The Russian bang, it says on the facade. The building was moved from its original location when the swimming centre was built.
(Text on a public sign near Eriksdalsbadet swimming centre, February 22, 2012)

Klara Källström & Thobias Fäldt, 2012
Text by Johannes Wahlström, 2012
Book made together with 1:2:3 (Axel von Friesen and Petter Törnqvist), B-B-B-Books, 2012