PEN, NYCLU, Artists Protest Investigation of Steve Kurtz

June 26, 2004

Two civil liberties groups have recently expressed their concern over a grand jury proceeding against an art professor.

On May 11, Steve Kurtz, who teaches at the University of Buffalo, was detained. His wife, Hope, had died that morning, and when the police and paramedics came, they saw some petri dishes that Kurtz uses in his artwork. They became suspicious.

Kurtz's wife died of a heart attack, but the U.S. attorney in Buffalo has convened a grand jury to see if it will indict Kurtz on the charge of violating the U.S. Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, which was updated by the Patriot Act.

Kurtz is a member of the Critical Arts Ensemble, which was founded in 1987 to explore "the intersections between art, technology, radical politics, and critical theory," its website says.

He was preparing a work that was protesting biotechnology at an upcoming exhibition at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Law enforcement seized that work and Kurtz's equipment after they found transgenic E. coli in his home, which he was using in his work. News reports said it was "completely harmless," according to the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Nevertheless, eight people, including several artists, have been subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury. The publishing company of the Critical Arts Ensemble, Autonomedia, has also been served a subpoena.

Kurtz "makes art which addresses the politics of biotechnology," explains the Critical Arts Ensemble Legal Defense Fund. It includes "a mobile DNA extraction laboratory for testing food products for possible transgenic contamination. It was this equipment which triggered the Kafkaesque chain of events."

Kurtz's attorney, Paul Cambria Jr., has said that Kurtz did nothing wrong.

"This does not appear to be the sort of matter that should be presented to a Grand Jury," says the New York Civil Liberties Union, in a letter to U.S. Attorney Michael Battle. "It should go without saying that this investigation would be entirely inappropriate and, therefore, unconstitutional were it to have been initiated because of the political views of Professor Kurtz and the Critical Arts Ensemble."

PEN USA says it is "deeply alarmed by the continuing prosecution of Steve Kurtz."

It says this "misapplication of the USA Patriot Act is dangerous to civil liberties. . . . Kurtz is an artist, not a terrorist, and his materials are intended for expression, they do not constitute any terrorist threat. PEN USA calls on the Justice Department to drop this case and to pursue actual terrorists, instead of wasting time and resources prosecuting Kurtz's First Amendment right to free expression."

The U.S. Attorney's office refused to comment on this case.

Artists around the country--and the world, for that matter--have been protesting against the grand jury investigation.

"The case is about signaling to the progressive arts community that certain totally legal, fully constitutional expressions of speech are going to be coming under increasing scrutiny in the post-9/11 Patriot Act period," says Greg Sholette, an artist and writer in New York City who is participating in the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition. "This is a wake up call to the arts community, as significant or more than the culture wars over Mapplethorpe in the 1990s."

On June 15, there was a protest in Buffalo with some 200 to 250 people, according to Rich Pell, a former student of Kurtz's and a practicing artist who will be teaching at the University of Michigan in the fall. Demonstrators held signs that said, "Knowledge Is Freedom" and "Stop the Investigation," he says. And they chanted: "Freedom of speech, freedom of research, freedom of knowledge."

There have been additional protests in San Francisco, Amsterdam, London, Paris, and Vienna, says Pell, and more than 2,000 people have signed letters of support.

"The support from the art community has been enormous," Pell says.

To stay abreast of this case, go to caedefensefund.org.