Ghazel was born in 1966 in Tehran, Iran. Lives and works in Paris, France.
This work started in 1997 when I received an expulsion letter from the French Ministry of Interior telling me to leave the French Territory immediately (they refused to renew my permit to stay). I then decided to put advertisements and announcements for a marriage of convenience, in order to find a husband (passport). I have many versions of these posters. The project started in 1997, when I was 30, and it continued until I got a residency permit.
Basically, it’s a project about people from the third world countries with no documents (residency papers) in Western countries (illegal aliens as they’re called in America), developed through my own personal experience of trying to stay in France (as an Iranian, a third world country citizen).
Since 2009 I have a dual citizenship; Iranian and French. I still feel like I am in transit, between here and there; there and here. My project is still in progress, it has taken other forms such as t-shirts questioning my getting a French citizenship . The last poster made in January 2016 is my reaction to the current debate of stripping citizenships from dual citizens in France.
Road Movie 7 - 2014
chapter 2 “N”
1362 - 1983
He said that he published a book when he was 12.
He said that he had escaped from the Turkish border.
Before reaching his destination, somewhere along the way, he got
arrested as an “Armenian”.Because he was very white they thought he was a “dangerous” and a “suspicious” Armenian.
The Turks threw “N” into prison.
He wanted to go to the U.S.A.
No one had any news of him.
Everyone thought that he had died on the way.
Anyway, after a while UNHCR came to his rescue.
They said that they wanted to send him as a refugee to Germany.
He thought to himself: is it better to stay in a Turkish prison or go to Hegel and Heidegger’s country?
He went to their countries.
10 years after that I met him in Berlin.
He is a good painter.
Road Movie is a series of minimal performance pieces inspired by stories I collect from Afghan and Iranian illegal
immigrants “in transit” in Paris (there are hundreds hanging in a park near my place, they are “en route” for England;
I volunteer with a ngo that helps them) Now I am continuing this work, inspired from people “in transit”.
The performances are unique; done in front of an audience, and its “film” is an independant work that can be projected.
