Art is not "Bioterrorism'
A live benefit concert and performance event with Snowcrash (.nl), The Yesmen and Critical Art Ensemble in support of artist Steven Kurtz and scientist Robert Ferrell, both threatened by an unjustifiable prosecution for "bioterrorism".
Presented in collaboration with:
Transmediale Festival, Berlin
& The Arts Catalyst, London
In a sinister neo-McCarthyite turn of the cards the prosecution of the
renowned artist Steve Kurtz, a core member of the US-based art
collective Critical Art Ensemble and Professor of Art at the University
of Buffalo, still continues after more than 8 months.
On
May 11th 2004 Steven Kurtz awoke to find his wife of 27 years dead.
After emergency workers arrived, they called in the FBI after finding
what they considered to be suspicious items. These items were
scientific samples and equipment, including harmless bacteria. Invoking
a 1989 bioterrorism law and the Patriot Act, federal agents detained
Kurtz for 22 hours and searched his home and office for two days. The
FBI confiscated his wife's body, his house, car, equipment, computer,
books, writings, correspondence, art projects and other items, even his
cat. His house, cat and car were returned after one week, once it was
determined that the death of his wife was unrelated to the bacterial
matter.
Kurtz was then arraigned and charged in a Federal
District Court, not for bioterrorsim but of four counts of 'mail and
wire fraud', carrying a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Dr.
Robert Ferrell, Professor of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh
is also indicted on the same charges.
Harmless laboratory
equipment and materials were at first mistakenly considered a public
health threat. No such threat ever existed. The continuation of legal
proceedings against Steven Kurtz and Robert Ferrell, now suggest a
political motivation to the case.
These charges are an attempt
to stop CAE's open and public research into the new regimes of
biotechnology. This research shown at major museums across the USA and
Europe includes work on:
- Genetically modified organisms and food (GMOs)
- the emerging complex of 'Intellectual Property Rights' related to the
patenting of DNA sequences, the very building blocks of life
- the science that lies behind the myth and politics of bioweapons
The
prosecution of Kurtz and Ferrell, and other scientists creating the
crucial public debate on the implications and risks in the fields of
biotechnology and life sciences, threaten healthy public discussion of
these important scientific and technological developments. Such forms
of legal intimidation have unfortunately increased in recent years.
They constitute a fundamental threat to the freedom of artistic and
academic research and the wider democratisation of vital areas of
scientific knowledge.
With this event we call for an immediate
cessation of all legal proceedings against Steve Kurtz, Robert Ferrell
and the Critical Art Ensemble, and a resumption of a broad debate on
the recent advances in the fields of biotechnology and life-sciences in
the USA and internationally.
In the presence of Steve Kurtz and
Critical Art Ensemble collaborator Claire Pentecost, De Balie will
stage an extensive benefit concert and performance event on Wednesday
February 9th in collaboration with SNOWCRASH - "The Biggest Live
Internet Dance Act on Earth".
With live connections to:
The Yesmen
www.theyesmen.org
Streamminister Berlijn
www.streamminister.de
Absurde Video Team Straatsburg
www.absurde.com
Radio Jeleni Praag
www.radiojeleni.cz
Performers:
Illegal Sound (General D & Longman)
Jitka Charvatova (Skyline)
and our main guests of the evening: Steve Kurtz and Claire Pentecost.
Admission: 5 euro:
The
revenues of the evening will be made entirely available to the Critical
Art Ensemble Defence Fund to support the legal struggle.
www.caedefensefund.org
Doors open: 19.30 hrs
This event will be streamed live via the internet @:
www.debalie.nl/live
www.snowcrash.nl
www.live.nu