General Idea
General Idea
Canadian group, active from 1967 to 1994
The General Idea collective, which includes Canadian artists Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal and AA Bronson, created between 1969 and 1994 an oeuvre that deeply question the status of images in our consumer society. Through humor, appropriation and diversion, the trio subverts popular culture forms in order to raise awareness on serious social issues.
Besides the Miss General Idea fictitious character, the muse and object that preside over their work, the AIDS series is initiated in 1987. It is testament to the collective's working process: a proliferation of images on the model of the object that has been subverted (wallpaper, stamps, posters...). According to AA Bronson, the AIDS logo was conceived “to avoid copyright and freely travel through our culture's dominant communication systems and advertising.” The image became a logo and was shown in art institutions in Europe and the United States.
General Idea's work was first shown by the Pinault Collection in the exhibition The Illusion of Light at Palazzo Grassi, in 2014.
Besides the Miss General Idea fictitious character, the muse and object that preside over their work, the AIDS series is initiated in 1987. It is testament to the collective's working process: a proliferation of images on the model of the object that has been subverted (wallpaper, stamps, posters...). According to AA Bronson, the AIDS logo was conceived “to avoid copyright and freely travel through our culture's dominant communication systems and advertising.” The image became a logo and was shown in art institutions in Europe and the United States.
General Idea's work was first shown by the Pinault Collection in the exhibition The Illusion of Light at Palazzo Grassi, in 2014.
