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Video

 

CIRCA presents VideoVirus by AA Bronson and General Idea. A reimagining of the historic Imagevirus for a global audience, the iconic artwork comes to life in a hypnotic video animation that virally transmits their activist message across billboards around the globe throughout December 2021.

Biography

Active 1969 - 1994

Collective members:
AA Bronson 
b. 1946, Vancouver 

Felix Partz
b. 1945, Winnipeg
d. June 5, 1994, Toronto

Jorge Zontal 
b. 1944, Parma, Italy
d. February 3, 1994, Toronto

Formed in Toronto in 1969 by AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal, General Idea is internationally recognized for work that tackled such subjects as the myth of the artist, the role of mass media, the relationship between the body and the identity, issues of gender and sexual repression, and famously HIV/AIDS activism at a time when talking about the disease was a taboo.  The members of General Idea were key figures in the 1970-80s conceptual art scenes and, with equal parts humor and criticality, created work across a variety of mediums and platforms. Performances and fictionalized, self-referential mythologies played a large role in their work – the group staged beauty pageants, boutiques, television talk shows, trade fair pavilions, and more, and their work often took on unconventional forms of media such as prints, magazines, posters, crests, and postcards. 

General Idea has been the subject of several major traveling museum exhibitions: The 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion, Kunsthalle Basel; Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; and the Musée d'art contemporain, Montreal (1984-85); The Armoury of the 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; 49th Parallel, New York; University Art Gallery, California State University, Long Beach; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; and the Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo (1968-87);  Fin de siècle, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart; Centre d’Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona; Kunstverein, Hamburg; The Power Plant, Toronto; Wexner Center for the Visual Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (1992-1993); One Day of AZT / One Year of AZT, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1994); Museum of Modern Art, New York (1996); General Idea Editions: 1967–1995, The Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville; Kunstverein Munich; Kunst-Werke, Berlin; Kunsthalle Zürich; Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; and Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto, Mississauga (2003-2007); Haute Culture: General Idea | Une rétrospective, 1969–1994, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris and Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2011); Broken Time/Tiempo Partido, Fondation Jumex, Mexico City (2016); and Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Buenos Aires (2017).

Additionally, General Idea has exhibited in the Canadian Pavilion at the 40th Venice Biennale (1980) and at Documenta 7, Kassel (1982).

General Idea’s work is included in the collections of important institutions worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia; the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich; and the Tate, London, among others.

All images © General Idea, Inc.