Ghazel
WANTED, 2005

Ghazel (Iran / Paris) Ghazel is an Iranian artist living in Paris. Her work is mostly about social and political engagement and the role of the artist in society. Having grown up in, and still very close to, a totalitarian country she has experienced censorship, self-censorship and fright of expression. For her art is about the social and the political. Ghazel's WANTED project developed from real personal concerns. She was in danger of being expelled from France and needed to find a way of obtaining Residential Papers. She decided that she needed to find a husband. Ghazel produced 'Wanted' posters advertising for a husband, they were quickly pasted up around the city by other men. She then received a residential card for 10 years in 2002, and has continued developing the project in a more political and less personal way. In the Espace Electra in Paris, Ghazel, as a foreigner holding a French 10 year residential card, offered to marry an illegal foreigner of any ethnic background. For the RISK exhibition Ghazel presented the complete Wanted poster series (25 posters) from her Marriage of convenience project. The last poster in the series was specially made for Glasgow and copies were contributed to the Self Regulating Poster Wall.