Jan Persson
Biography
It's a rather unreal experience to drive to the east of Gothenburg, Sweden, through a large and gloomy industrial area, and to suddenly arrive at the Bergsjön Center, a residential area at the edge of a forest, built in 1970, where mainly «new Swedes» are living and where you can find a long mural drawing with illustrations of The Master and Margarita on the wall of a supermarket.
Probably, only few of the 15,700 inhabitants of this city district, representing about 140 different nationalities, will know who Mikhail Bulgakov was, let alone that they would have read The Master and Margarita. And yet, they are familiar with the characters of the novel, since most of them come along this colourful fresco of 2.5 meters high and 55 meters long on the wall of the local ICA supermarket at the marketplace Rymdtorget every day.
The illustrations have been made by the Swedish artist Jan Persson, about whom I know very little. They were made in 1995 on the occasion of one of the many renovations the Bergsjön Center has known. The style can be described as naive, and it is notable that the depicted scenes only illustrate the diabolical Moscow scenes of The Master and Margarita. No trace of Yeshua Ha-Nozri or Pontius Pilate.
For most visitors of this website, it will be a little too far to visit the Bergsjön illustrations, but if you happen to be in the Gothenburg area, it is definitely worth the trip.
Address
ICA Supermarket
Bergsjön Center, Rymdtorget 9, 415 19 Gothenburg, Sweden
Illustrations
Use the arrow below to watch the mural drawing made by Jan Persson.
