Carbon 12 proudly presents Ghazel's second solo exhibition, with the most seminal series the Me series which is for the first time deconstructed into short scenes, and will be exhibited in this format. The Me series is an ongoing series since 1997 with more than 730 scenes.

Ghazel (b. 1966, in Tehran/Iran) is one of the most significant Iranian contemporary artists on the international art scene and one of the pioneers of video and video performance.

“Family Tree” consists of 12 episodes made from ‘family stories’; all enacted by Ghazel with her Me series persona: herself in a black chador. The artist re-incarnates all of the characters by herself as her great aunt, her dog, her mom, her brother, her dad, and her nanny…an approach that amplifies her humor. It not only changes and challenges the aesthetics of her work and its representation, but also multiplies her narrations by adding other characters. With this new direction and mutation, the series can be renamed even as "Me and the Others series".

The 12 stories/scenes are conceived as a new project for Carbon 12. The works consist of 5 single-scene videos and 7 photographs, as opposed to the usual three-channel video installations so far exhibited in various institutions. They are deliberately “scattered” and "deconstructed" into different video installations and framed storyboard-like photographs, with a significantly more intense aesthetics of fragmentation and "tranches de vie" which is familiar to Ghazel’s style of work.

As in all of her Me series scenes, the captions placed in her C-prints are as important as the images itself since they create a narration critical to the work. The captions carry the 'Ghazelian' sense of humor and act as a voice-over for the narrative, creating a contrast with the silence of the photograph.

The Me series has been shown extensively around the world since 2000, with exhibitions in prestigious institutions and Biennials such as the 50th Venice Biennial, Venice, the 8th Havana Biennial, Cuba, Hannover Museum, Germany, The Hayward Gallery, UK, Centre Pompidou, Paris, MAC, Chile, and is currently installed in "Le Pont" at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Marseille.

The work has been the subject of many writings, debates, discussions, and conferences by many writers and art historians.

Ghazel's Me series are as well in the permanent collections of prestigious museums such as: Centre Pompidou, Paris (Me 1997-2000), MUMOK, Vienna (Me 2000-2003) and Cité nationale d'histoire de l'immigration, Paris (Me 2003-2008).

Image: © Ghazel, Carbon 12