In the wake of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations around the world, statues depicting former slave traders have been selected, vandalized and questioned.

How should we relate to these statues that were erected a long time ago but which still remain today - uncommented?

Carl von Linné and Louis De Geer under the seal

For some time now, the debate has also come to Sweden. Among other things, statues depicting national hero Carl von Linné and industrial magnate Louis De Geer, who was a driving force in Sweden's slave trade in West Africa in the 17th century, have come under the spot.

The artist Carl Johan De Geer is related to Louis De Geer and through his art has tried to make up his heritage. Among other things, in an exhibition entitled The Family and Slaves and in a book of the same name.

Low knowledge of Sweden's involvement in the slave trade

He suggests that new sculptures be erected at the criticized statues in order to put them in a historical context. 

- I would like to make a small bronze sculpture, as a commentary, near Mile's statue of Louis De Geer in the form of a school bench. There is an irony in that and it is that there has been no teaching at school of Sweden's involvement in slavery.

- I hadn't heard anything about this until I was told by a slave in Brazil who thought my last name had contributed to his family's terrible fate. I was completely shocked and thought: why have I never been told this at school? , says Carl Johan De Geer to the Culture News.