VideoVirus, a powerful film based on the historic Imagevirus artwork, is being shown in London and around the world.
The new artwork, created by AA Bronson and General Idea, comes to life in a hypnotic video animation that virally transmits their activist message, ending with a focus on ending new cases of HIV by 2030.
The VideoVirus project started on World AIDS Day 2021 and is being broadcast every day in December, with CIRCA showing VideoVirus on billboards in London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Milan, New York, Seoul and Tokyo.
The London screenings are in Piccadilly Square at 8.21pm (i.e. 20:21) GMT.
Alongside UNAIDS, we're proud partners of CIRCA in this amazing project and visual representation of 40 years of the pandemic.
AA Bronson is the sole surviving member of the General Idea art group. The artwork draws inspiration from the viral intentions of Imagevirus, which in the mid-1980s spread awareness of the pandemic. It reappropriated Robert Indiana's famous LOVE logo, virally transmitting the AIDS symbol through cities in the form of paintings, sculptures, videos, posters and exhibitions.
Our Chief Executive Ian Green said: 'Not only are we proud to be a partner of such a beautiful piece of art, it’s role in fighting stigma and inspiring action towards the shared goal of ending new cases by 2030 is fantastic. Culture is such a great catalyst for activism.
'To see VideoVirus in all its glory as it consumes the whole of Piccadilly Square is a sight to behold. Try and view it first hand if you can.'
Artist, healer and curator AA Bronson said: 'General Idea first developed the concept of viral images in the early 1970s. In the mid-80s that work became prophetically and tragically true, with the appearance of the HIV virus. In 1987 we exhibited our first AIDS painting and papered lower Manhattan with AIDS posters in the hope of making the image indeed viral.
'Thirty-five years later, and marking the 40th anniversary of AIDS first being recorded, I am honoured to join the CIRCA platform with this reimagined VideoVirus. General Idea's VideoVirus replicates the spread of HIV to the four corners of the world; it expands General Idea's signature theme of "image as virus" for a global audience.'
