General Idea: Art, AIDS and the Fin de siècle

“General Idea: Art, AIDS and the fin de siècle” is a humorous, informative and ultimately poignant documentary about the internationally acclaimed Canadian artists’ collective General Idea. Formed in 1969, they produced art that targeted and mimicked media, consumerism and celebrity, creating a revolutionary new spirit of art making. Interviews with AA Bronson, the sole survivor of the trio, lends personal relevancy to this poignant story of art and sexual politics. “GENERAL IDEA: Art, AIDS and the fin de siècle” is a tale of love, fame, overwhelming loss and, ultimately, renewal. Selected screenings: Canadian Art Reel Artists Film Festival, 2009; Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, 2008; Inside Out Toronto Lesbian & Gay Film & Video Festival, 2007 It is 1969, the summer of love, and Toronto is the meeting place for a trio of young artists who change their names and adopt new personas to become Jorge Zontal AA Bronson and Felix Partz. They are gay, they are irreverent, and through “The Miss General Idea Pageant,” they “investigate” the nature of glamour and celebrity. In Europe, in the 1970s, GENERAL IDEA become celebrities, treated like rock stars and exhibited at major museums in Amsterdam, Berlin, and Paris. They are invited to make video-art for Dutch television, who ironically refuse to show the work based on the tenet that it is “too much like real television.” Into the 1980s and the first labeled cases of AIDS. It doesn’t take long for AIDS to hit the art world full-force, killing thousands. GENERAL IDEA responds by making art that addresses the plague virus. In an unforgettable coup, they appropriate the well-known LOVE painting by Robert Indiana and replace those four letters with “AIDS,” creating the now world-famous logo. By 1989, the “AIDS” pieces have infiltrated New York, San Francisco, Berlin, and Amsterdam. GENERAL IDEA continues to tour Europe and North America with massive political installation pieces that chronicle the devastating spread of the disease and its impact on their community. The “AIDS” pieces help to raise public awareness around a disease that changed the sexual consciousness of the world. Ironically, it also ended the lives of two members of General Idea. “Annette Mangard’s documentary provides a comprehensive overview of the work generated by General Idea and contextualizes it in terms of the growing awareness of AIDS and its impact on the art world and culture in general. Highly recommended.“ – Oksana Dykyj, Educational Media Arts Online For full review, visit: http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/emro/emroDetail.asp?Number=3706