Felix Partz

Felix Partz

N/A

Most Known for...

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Shut the Fuck Up 1984

Using ironic and iconic excerpts from television and film from the 1960s, such as The Joker character from Batman and part of the historic footage of artist Yves Klein's painting and performance from Mondo Cane, General Idea examine the relationship between the mass media and the artist.
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Test Tube 1979

Produced by De Appel, Amsterdam, while General Idea was in residence there, Test Tube was conceived as a program for television. Presented under the brand "The Color Bar Lounge," a cocktail bar in the mythical 1984 Miss General Idea Pavilion, the program is a hybrid of popular television formats […] and infomercial. […] Advertisements for the bar are placed throughout the program; a loaded word choice, full of double-entendres and innuendo, betrays the influence of both Dadaism and consumerism. This collapse of popular and high culture is central to General Idea's agenda, as Felix Partz observes: "You know, the mass media are like a vast pharmaceutical complex developing new cultural elixirs of an unprecedented intoxication…but art remains a curious and elitist drink. Despite its unique flavor and heady cultural properties, it has never effectively been exploited."
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Pilot 1977

Produced for public television broadcast in Ontario, Pilot takes the form of a prime-time newsmagazine, with General Idea as the subject. As hosts, AA Bronson, Felix Partz, and Jorge Zontal describe their collective transformation from young strivers to "famous, glamorous artists," and the diversification of the General Idea media empire. Using a library of clips, they recount General Idea's public performances, films, and fashion designs (such as the "Venetian Blind Gown," modeled here by dancers, swimmers and snow skiers). They also discuss their print publication, FILE, and their decision to change the magazine's logo after Time-Life sued them for trademark infringement in June 1974. ("They didn't like our lifelike format," says Bronson.) A witty survey of the group's early work, Pilot is punctuated throughout by a voice-over manifesto on their continuing project, the Miss General Idea Pavilion of 1984.