Gillian McIver

For a long time I have been very obsessed with the novel The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Here I used archive material from Moscow I shot in the late 90s. The city has changed a lot since then so the idea was to create something that is itself dated, a period piece. The skyline over the Kremlin now has a lot of new skyscrapers and the house of Bulgakov is totally renovated. Even Patriarch’s Ponds has lost its quiet contemplative atmosphere, being surrounded by ads and billboards.

I shot it on film but transferred it to DV and have only the DV tapes now, which is what I worked from.

Working with my own archives is something I am increasingly doing, finding unexpected and interesting things in old tapes.