TORONTO.- On Saturday, August 12, 2006, the Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) will unveil AIDS, the 1989 sculpture created by the acclaimed Canadian artist collective General Idea. The AIDS sculpture will be on view on the ROM Plaza at the corner of Bloor St. W. and Queen’s Park. It will be displayed for the first time since 1997 as part of AIDS 2006, the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto (August 13 to 18, 2006). Illuminated at night and accompanied by bilingual text, AIDS will be on display until 2006 October 1, Sponsored by TD Canada Trust, the Official Bank and supporter of AIDS 2006, the unveiling will take place at 6:30 pm, prior to the first screening of the AIDS 2006 Film Festival.

"The ROM is pleased to celebrate the launch of the AIDS 2006 Film Festival by presenting this significant and thought-provoking sculpture as part of the ICC’s diverse programming," said William Thorsell, CEO and Director of the Royal Ontario Museum. "By bringing this important sculpture again into public view, we remember that AIDS continues to affect people in Canada and in many other parts of the world."

Both artifact and artwork, the AIDS sculpture recalls the late 1980s and the early 1990s, when AIDS dominated the headlines. The six-foot lacquered metal sculpture was created in 1989 by AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal of General Idea at a time when few artworks dealt specifically with AIDS. Inspired by American artist Robert Indiana's first 1970 LOVE sculpture, General Idea replaced the word LOVE with AIDS, compressing the letters into two rows within a perfect square.

AIDS was first displayed on a shopping street in Hamburg, Germany in 1989, before traveling to Barcelona, Spain and Stuttgart, Germany in 1992 and to Columbus, Ohio and Toronto the following year. Displayed outdoors, the sculpture accumulated graffiti. In 1993, when the sculpture was outside the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the museum unexpectedly removed the graffiti to the shock of General Idea, who saw the graffiti an integral part of the work. Small amounts of newer graffiti, added in San Francisco, in Geneva, Switzerland at the Palais des Nations in 1995 and again in Hamburg, Germany in 1997, are visible today.

As part of the AIDS street display, the ICC will present AA Bronson: General Idea and Beyond, a lecture by the sole surviving member of General Idea. On Thursday, September 28, 2006, 7:00 pm, AA Bronson will speak about General Idea, focusing on the work produced between 1987 and 1994 on the theme of AIDS. He will also introduce some of his own solo work produced since this time. The free lecture will take place in the ROM’s Signy & Cléophée Eaton Theatre. The ICC at the ROM is supporting the Cultural Activities Programme of AIDS 2006 and will host the AIDS 2006 Film Festival. Five free screenings in the Signy & Cléophée Eaton Theatre will highlight the efforts and spirits of people living and working with HIV and AIDS around the world. For more information visit www.rom.on.ca or contact the ICC at 416.586.5524, e-mail: icc@rom.on.ca. For media information on the XVI International AIDS Conference, contact Nicole Amoroso at 416.840.3334 x304, e-mail: nicole.amoroso@aids2006toronto.org or visit www.aids2006.org.

General Idea: Created in 1969, General Idea is known internationally for their video, performance, publishing, painting, sculpture and installation work. Pioneers of conceptual and media-based practices in Canada, the Toronto-based artist collaborative focused its creative energies on understanding pop culture and how the artist, creative process, museum and the audience interact to form culture. From 1972 to 1989, the group published 26 issues of FILE Megazine and in 1974 founded Toronto’s Art Metropole, a publishing and distribution centre for artists. By 1987, the group’s focus shifted to the AIDS epidemic. That year, General Idea created the AIDS logo (appropriating Indiana’s original 1966 LOVE painting) and began a publicity campaign for the previously unmentionable disease. From 1987 to 1994, General Idea produced many versions of AIDS, including a small metal sculpture, a postage stamp, numerous paintings, two versions in screen printed wallpaper and the metal sculpture that will be on display outside the ROM. Over 25 years, General Idea mounted over 50 temporary public art installations, 123 solo exhibitions and participated in 149 group exhibitions in cities as far as Paris, Sydney, Sao Paulo and Venice. Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal died of AIDS-related causes in 1994. AA Bronson works as a solo artist and continues to exhibit internationally.