), publicly known as Jorge Zontal, was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 artist and cofounder of the artistic collective General Idea

General Idea

General Idea was a collective of three Canadian artists, Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal and AA Bronson, who were active from 1967 to 1994.As pioneers of early conceptual and media-based art, their collaboration became a model for artist-initiated activities and continues to be a prominent influence on...

 with Felix Partz

Felix Partz

Ronald Gabe , publicly known as Felix Partz, was a Canadian artist and cofounder of the artistic collective General Idea with Jorge Zontal and AA Bronson....

 and AA Bronson

AA Bronson

AA Bronson, OC, is an artist, magazine publisher and curator who co-founded the artists' group General Idea.-General Idea:The General Idea artists group was founded in 1969 by Bronson, Jorge Zontal and Felix Partz...

.

Zontal was born in Parma, Italy, in 1944, the son of Yugoslav refugees. He grew up in Caracas, Venezuela, and in 1968 he earned a degree in architecture at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he also studied film making and acting. Soon after graduation, he met AA Bronson and Felix Partz while working on a film in Toronto and their group, General Idea, soon became an active part of the Canadian and then the international art scene.

Zontal died on February 3, 1994 of AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

-related causes.