General Idea
The artist collective General Idea — AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal — forged a unique conceptual practice that deployed parody and irony to critique the artworld and popular media culture. In performances, installations, video, photography, prints, and editions, they explored social phenomena ranging from the production, distribution and consumption of mass media images to gay identity and the AIDS crisis. General Idea worked together from 1969 until the deaths of Partz and Zontal in 1994. General Idea was formed in Toronto by George Saia, Ronald Gabe and Michael Tims, who assumed the identities Jorge Zontal, Felix Partz and AA Bronson, respectively. The collective name General Idea was adopted in 1969. Their early fictional construction "Miss General Idea," which became the group's official muse, was featured in the Miss General Idea Beauty Pageants, a series of legendary performance art events that began in 1970. Such forays into cultural satire would continue to take new forms, as the group harnessed the inherently viral nature of popular images in mass culture. Exploring branding and logos to interrogate the production and consumption of art as commodity, the group…
Films