[NYTr] WW on Steve Kurtz Case (Art as Terrorism)
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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 1, 2004
issue of Workers World newspaper
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NOW ANTI-GOVERNMENT ART IS "TERRORISM"!
BUFFALO PROFESSOR FACES FBI CHARGES
By Beverly Hiestand
Buffalo, N.Y.
Steve Kurtz, an associate art professor at the State University of New
York at Buffalo, called 911 on May 11 for aid for his wife, who later
died of apparent heart failure. The death of his spouse was only the
beginning of his nightmare.
Buffalo police made it clear from the beginning that Kurtz was not under
any suspicion in connection with the death of his wife, who had a
history of an enlarged heart.
Yet federal agents from the Buffalo Joint Terrorism Task Force raided
his home later that day.
Kurtz is an artist who uses harmless live organisms found in the
everyday environment, and laboratory equipment in his performances that
are political commentary on scientific topics. He has been a member,
since 1987, of a Buffalo-based Critical Art Ensemble, which uses
scientific equipment to create art projects that question the
relationship between commerce, politics and bio technology. The group
has exhibited this art all over the world. (www.caedefensefund.org)
The day Kurtz's spouse died, federal agents seized from his home
computers, vials, test tubes, books on biowarfare and bacterial cultures
that were immediately found to be harmless.
Claire Pentecost, a photographer at the Art Institute of Chicago, says
that the books on biowarfare carried off by investigators were part of
the group's latest project, "The Marching Plague," which simulates an
anthrax attack as part of its critique of government germ warfare
research. (Nature, June 17)
The equipment that CAE used to test common food products has also been
confiscated by the FBI, even though laboratory tests have shown that it
was not used for any illegal purpose, and it is not possible to use this
equipment for the production or weaponization of dangerous germs.
"These people aren't bio-terrorists. They're artists, making political
statements" said Paul J. Cambria, attorney for Kurtz. "Steve Kurtz is a
peaceful man. But after 9/11, our country has been ripe for paranoia
about terrorism, and our government feeds that paranoia. [Kurtz]
certainly wouldn't have dialed 911 after his wife's death and invited
authorities into his home if he had any kind of equipment for terrorism
in there." (Buffalo News, June 16)
LOCAL CASUALTIES OF WASHINGTON'S 'WAR ON TERROR'
The case has drawn international media attention. "Art becomes the next
suspect in America's 9/11 paranoia," headlined The Guardian, a major
British newspaper, on June 11.
This is the second major effort of state repression under the Patriot
Act here in Buffalo.
The first victims of the "war on terror" were six young Yemeni men from
the industrial suburb of Lackawanna. They were charged in September 2002
with having traveled to an Al-Qaeda training camp in the spring of 2001,
listening to an anti-U.S. speech and receiving small-weapons training
for a very brief period.
The six were under tremendous pressure from the Bush-Ashcroft
administration. They faced the threat of being tried for treason, a
capital crime, and being designated "enemy combatants" with no legal
rights at all. Reportedly as a result, all six separately pleaded guilty
to providing material support or resources to Al-Qaeda. In December each
was sentenced to near-maximum prison terms of from seven to 10 years.
The entire Yemeni community continues to be under state siege.
Continuous roadblocks are set up around the area and police make
searches and threats without any cause.
INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR KURTZ
An FBI indictment continues to loom over Kurtz.
His case has attracted international support. On June 15, some 200
supporters from all over the U.S and from other countries demonstrated
in downtown Buffalo at Niagara Square while, a couple of blocks away, a
federal grand jury was investigating Kurtz.
Other demonstrations in defense of Kurtz were held on the same day in
Vienna, Austria; Amsterdam, the Nether lands; and Berkeley, California.
Support for Kurtz is also reportedly widespread in the art communities
of Europe and the United States.
Protestors accused the U.S. Justice Department of trying to turn an edgy
art exhibit into a terrorist plot.
They charged that Kurtz is being targeted under the USA Patriot Act of
2001 because his art is critical of the government. The U.S. Attorney's
office in Buffalo has declined to comment on the case.
The Critical Arts Ensemble support website states that the group
believes Kurtz's case is being pursued under the Biological Weapons Anti-
Terrorism Act of 1989. The act was amended under the post-9/11 Patriot
Act to allow the prosecution of "whoever knowingly possesses any
biological agent, toxin or delivery system."
One of those protesting the FBI's actions was Nato Thompson. He's
curator of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams,
where an art exhibit by Kurtz about genetically altered food was
scheduled to be shown in June.
The exhibit, entitled "Free Range Grain," consisted of a small
laboratory where patrons could explore the role of genetic engineering
in food production. "People could bring some food, like a loaf of bread,
and have it tested there, to find out how organic the bread really was,"
said Katherine Myers, a museum spokesperson. "The artist was using
science as a way to get people to investigate things, to ask questions."
In the space where the exhibit would have appeared, the museum has
posted a sign, explaining that Kurtz's work cannot be displayed because
the FBI seized it. (Buffalo News, June 16)
- END -
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