''Efter badet'' (Swedish, 'After the Bath') is a public sculpture, cut in limestone and located in the

Västertorp Västertorp (''Westcroft'') is a district of the Hägersten-Liljeholmen borough in Söderort, the southern suburban part of Stockholm, Sweden. History The district was formed on February 1, 1948. The suburb was constructed between 1949 and 1954. ...

district of suburban

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. It was designed by the sculptor Pye Engström, who spent five years between 1971 and 1976 working on it. Since 1976 it has been located outside of ''Västertorpshallen'', a municipally owned public bath. It is constructed as a bench, in which visitors can sit in the lap of seven different political figures depicted by Engström. From left to right, they are Elise Ottesen-Jensen, Paulo Freire,

Sara Lidman Sara Adéla Lidman (30December 192317June 2004) was a Swedish writer. Early life Born in Missenträsk, a village in present Skellefteå Municipality, Lidman was raised in the Västerbotten region of northern Sweden. She studied at the Universi ...

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

, Angela Davis, Georg Borgström and

Pablo Neruda Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...

. The sculpture has been the source of controversy in recent years. In 2006 Martina Lind ( sv), a local politician from the Liberal People's Party, proposed to the Assembly of

Stockholm Municipality Stockholm Municipality or the City of Stockholm ( sv, Stockholms kommun or ) is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It has the largest population of the 290 municipalities of the country, but one of the smallest areas, maki ...

that the statue should be removed from public display, stating that the city "shouldn't celebrate one of the worst mass murderers in world history". She also requested monuments dedicated to the victims of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

be created in Stockholm. In 2010, Madeleine Sjöstedt ( sv) – a prominent municipal politician, also belonging to the Liberal People's Party – brought attention to ''Efter badet'' again, and, while she did not call for its removal, she demanded that the responsible authorities erect a sign next to the sculpture, providing information about the "crimes against humanity committed by Mao and

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

". The

Swedish Social Democratic Party The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( sv, Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti ; S/SAP), usually referred to as The Social Democrats ( sv, link=no, Socialdemokraterna ), is a social-d ...

opposition politician Roger Mogert ( sv) commented that the statue was "a bit of a non-issue." The sculptor Pye Engström explained the choice of portrayed individuals by saying that "it was the 1970s", and later stated that she had no problem with the city authorities putting up a sign, as long as it provided information about everyone depicted in the sculpture.

References

{{coord, 59.2933, N, 17.9774, E, source:wikidata, display=title 1976 sculptures Buildings and structures in Stockholm Limestone statues Mao Zedong Outdoor sculptures in Sweden Statues in Sweden Limestone sculptures in Sweden

See also

References