THE BOMB

The idea

While visiting the exhibition “When we see the planes” in Bangkok in June 2024, feelings of horror and helplessness once again evoked. Seeing the artwork and installation of a typical bamboo hut, the images of people in makeshift underground bunkers as well as smoke columns after air strikes...the sheer madness and monstrosity of dropping state-of-the-art cluster and vacuum bombs from fighter planes onto small, remote bamboo hut villages!

But there is always one thing missing which is hardly ever seen, the thing that actually causes all this killing, destruction and suffering, the bomb itself. So abstract, so hidden and vanished after impact. How big are these bombs actually and how do they look?

To fight my feelings of helplessness, I talked to the curator of the exhibition (Hnin) and we developed the idea to create a replica of a bomb, in addition to the exhibition which would show in Chiang Mai later again, to give visitors an impression of a real bomb which was actually used in a Myanmar airstrike.

The use of such weapons against other people is generally unimaginable and yet takes place every day in various areas of the world. Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon are currently the more prominent ones but there have been 34034 airstrikes in Myanmar since the coup and until December 2024. While there is comparably little footage from Myanmar, in video recordings from Gaza and Lebanon you can even watch bombs while they are approaching until the impact. It is beyond our comprehension what is actually going on in such moments, except or maybe even particularly for the ones who experienced themselves, as the victim does not see the bomb coming, only the plane.

The technical apparatus behind what is actually happening, is well hidden. The public, whose tax money is used to purchase these weapons, is sealed off and usually never sees them or the quantities in which they are produced. Manufactured, sold, transported and stored in seclusion and under government protection, touched or even seen by only a very limited amount of people. The bombs for the airstrikes are at some point attached to a military aircraft and dropped on human-defined targets. Even the final decision makers probably do not actually see the exact bomb being dropped on a specific target, it is all part of a killing machine. The Junta in Myanmar purchases weapons and military equipment from various countries. After most air strikes, it remains unclear which bomb exactly has been used. The manufacturer, model and other details usually cannot be verified since the remnants are too small and abstract. After some air raids, however, there are remains that allow a clear identification. This happened after the junta’s deadliest air strike to date since the 2021 coup on Pazigyi on April 11th, 2023, with around 170 dead.

The remains could be traced back to a Russian KAB-500 which had been sold to Myanmar several times over the past decades. KAB stands for Korrektiruyeskaya Aviatsionnaya Bomba, i.e. a correctable air bomb in contrast to unguided or so-called “dumb” bombs. The onboard daylight electro-optical TV seeker under and a scene-matching area correlation guidance system under the glass sphere enable the bomb to locate and lock onto a specific target visually. Once the bomb is released from the plane, it operates autonomously without further control by the pilot or ground station. The KAB-500 is described as a high accuracy (around 4 m to the target) fire and forget bomb for high value assets. The KAB series consists of different models and sizes based on the American GBUs (Guided Bomb Unit) from the Vietnam War in the 1970s and available in bunker-busting, cluster bomb and vacuum bomb versions. Without own propulsion but with a range of around 17 km, it enables the pilot to drop from great heights and distances.