Explosive art

If you walk down Östgötagatan on Södermalm you will pass two big turquoise copper gates. At the Katarina power station. Made by the artist Mikael Pauli some thirty years ago. The technique he used for making them is a bit special. He was told by the electrical company that the gates had to be able to withstand an explosion. That gave him some ideas. With the help of an explosives expert, he dug a huge hole in a forest up North. He filled that hole with hundreds of everyday items, like an old TV, coins, a guitar, a chair, a few bottles of beer, an old suitcase, a pair of skis and more. They then added the copper plates which were four by twelve meters big. And over that they put some plastic and masonite. Before finishing it off with a lot of penthrite. After that, they filled the hole with water from a nearby lake with the help of a tractor and a few big tanks, and blew it all up! They did that three times. And from that, Mikael created the two big gates. My kind of artist!