Steve Kurtz
Steve Kurtz (* 1958 ) is an American organic artist and scientist as well as co-founder of the artist group Critical Art Ensemble .
Life
Kurtz founded the Critical Art Ensemble in Tallahassee , Florida in 1987 . Her projects have been exhibited in numerous renowned museums, including the Whitney Museum , the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City , the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC , the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London , the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago , in the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt and at dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel .
Kurtz is a retired professor of art at the University of Buffalo and a past professor of art at Carnegie Mellon University .
Charge as "bio-terrorist"
Steve Kurtz was married to the artist Hope Kurtz, who died of heart failure on May 11, 2004 in the shared house in Buffalo at the age of 45. Since Kurtz dialed the emergency number 911 in this context, a house search was carried out in which a small home laboratory was discovered. The artist couple recently worked on an exhibition on genetically modified food for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art . Buffalo police reported this to the FBI , who held Kurtz for 22 hours without charge on suspicion of " bio-terrorism ". Meanwhile, dozens of federal agents ransacked his home and confiscated books, computers, manuscripts, and art materials, as well as Hope Kurtz's body.
Kurtz was allowed to return to his home a week later after the New York State Public Health Officer determined that nothing in the home posed any public or environmental health or safety threat and that Hope Kurtz died of natural causes.
However, charges were brought and the case dragged on for several years, going through several instances. It was not until April 21, 2008 that presiding judge Richard Arcara described the indictment as "unsatisfactory". This means that even if the actions alleged in the indictment - which the judge must accept as facts - are true, they are not crimes. The US Department of Justice had thirty days to appeal from the date of the judgment. Since this was not done, the lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.
Cultural influence
His life story served as a model for the film Strange Culture by Lynn Hershman-Leeson, with Tilda Swinton and Thomas Jay Ryan in the leading roles. She also inspired Richard Powers to write his novel Orfeo .
Individual evidence
Web links
- Critical Art Ensemble website
- Robert Hirsch, The Strange Case of Steve Kurtz
- Art in a Time of Terror: Acclaimed Art Professor Steve Kurtz on How He Became a "Bioterrorism" Suspect After His Wife Died in Her Sleep
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kurtz, Steve |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American organic artist and scientist as well as co-founder of the artist group Critical Art Ensemble |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1958 |