Living and working together in the counterculture of the late 1960s in Toronto, AA Bronson (born Michael Tims in 1946 in Vancouver), Felix Partz (born Ronald Gabe in 1945 in Winnipeg, died in 1994) and Jorge Zontal (born Slobodan Saia-Levy in Parma in 1944, died in 1994), formalized their collaboration in 1969 under the name General Idea. From their first projects, such as the organization of the 1970 Miss General Idea Pageant, to their activist initiatives around AIDS, General Idea has explored all media and developed a practice that questions everyday culture and its repressions. A major retrospective of General Idea is currently circulating from the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and then to the Gropius Bau, Berlin.
The group’s drawings are less well known and many of them have never even been exhibited. The 250 drawings gathered here were all produced by Jorge Zontal, who had developed a regular practice, especially during the collective’s daily meetings. The collective design of the signature within General Idea and as evidenced by the “GI” monogram affixed to the sheets by Zontal shortly before his death, makes all designs a General Idea production. The drawings take on greater regularity and a more stable form as the group moves from Toronto, which seemed increasingly isolated on the world art scene, to New York. Throughout the 1980s, the joie de vivre expressed by the collective was overshadowed by the AIDS crisis. This period is marked, according to AA Bronson, by “confronting and integrating the illness and death of most of our friends, as well as Jorge and Felix themselves.” A set of works produced in the context of AIDS are also presented in several adjacent rooms, notably AIDS (Nauman) which has not been shown since its creation in 1991.
The exhibition of drawings and the accompanying publication have been titled Ecce Homo to echo the eponymous 1923 work by German artist George Grosz, because, according to AA Bronson, “the anti-Semitism present in the narrative of Grosz refers to the homophobia of ours.” Suffering is perceptible in a number of drawings, like the holey or deformed figures of a set of sheets or the latest compositions in which Jorge Zontal, who was going blind, represented the black spots in front of his eyes like so many cockroaches. These dark traits coexist with lighter moments, as the familiar figures of General Idea’s lexicon (high heels, heraldic symbols, hanging lips, and mischievous poodles) appear.
Although drawn by hand, the principle of repetition of certain motifs in these drawings recalls General Idea’s penchant for mechanical reproduction and echoes the concept of the “image-virus” of their work around AIDS. By their mutability and their rhythm, these drawings open a new window in the practice of General Idea, underlining the role of these representations to formulate personal, social and political questions.
at MAMCO, Genève
until June 18, 2023