GENERAL IDEA

Search for the Spirit consists of 10 silver gelatin prints showing a series of collages and images of various performances and shadow plays staged by General Idea at the beginning of the 1970s.

General Idea’s early works (1969–1984) mimicked popular culture formats, such as beauty pageants and mainstream magazines, in order to forward a critical and satirical view of art, culture and media. Their series of faux beauty pageants, begun in 1970, satirized glamour, fame and the art world. The notion of glamour, the myth of the artist, and the character they created, “Miss General Idea” became key motifs in the group’s iconography and mythology.