Vi på muren – We on the wall

The artist Sven “X:et” Erixson was critical of Swedish political neutrality during the Second World War. With his painting from 1942/43, he wanted to show Sweden’s passivity when Finland was attacked by the Soviet Union in 1939, and when Norway and Denmark were occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940. He likened Sweden’s official standpoint with how the citizens of Visby passively observed the slaughter of 27 July 1361. Erixson used a well-known event in 1361 to criticise the Swedish Government’s policy in the 1940s.

Using a historical event as a commentary on one’s own period or as a means of influencing it is known as “the use of history”. What are we blinding ourselves to today? What walls are we hiding behind?

Today, the painting is hanging in Wisby high school on Gotland.