The Terror, the Terror

More on Kurtz:

Nothing in her experience as associate curator at the University of Washington's Henry Art Gallery prepared Robin Held for her interview with the FBI.

Two agents came to the University of Washington recently to ask Held about artist Steve Kurtz, the subject of a grand jury investigation into bioterrorism in Buffalo, N.Y. Although well-known in performance art circles for the rigor of his thinking and his interest in the politics of genetic manipulations, Kurtz needed the FBI to make him a star.

[. . .]

Kurtz, 46, isn't talking, on advice from his lawyer. He and his group, Critical Art Ensemble, were included in Held's exhibit titled, "Gene(sis)."

Among the artifacts of his performances in "Gene(sis)" were sealed petri dishes with the kind of E. coli that is commonly used in science labs in colleges and universities around the world, said Held.

[. . .]

After closing at the Henry, "Gene(sis)" ran without incident at the Berkeley Art Museum in California and the Fredrick Weisman Museum of Art at the University of Minnesota.

So the FBI and the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force really are pursuing CAE's travelling exhibit, which has been displayed in 4 different states over at leat 4 months. If CAE are indeed bioterrorists, they clearly need to work on their delivery.

Nevertheless, the investigation is escalating:

At least six people who were called to testify before the grand jury in the Kurtz case Tuesday refused to appear, invoking their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, legal sources said Wednesday.

Several defense lawyers involved in the case said federal prosecutors refused to tell their clients whether they might become targets of the probe, and also refused to grant them immunity from prosecution if they testified.

"My client declined to testify, and so did quite a few others who were called before the grand jury," said Thomas J. Eoannou, attorney for Paul Vanouse, an assistant art professor at the University at Buffalo. "People in the art community are concerned about this investigation, and where it's going. They don't know who is being targeted."

Attorneys James P. Harrington and Daniel J. Henry Jr. said their clients, UB assistant art professor Andrew Johnson and California artist Beatriz da Costa, respectively, also declined to testify.

[. . .]

Kurtz, Vanouse and da Costa all are associated with the Critical Art Ensemble, a controversial group of performance artists who sometimes use human DNA and bacterial growths such as E.coli in their art exhibits.

When I first read the headline, I admit that my immediate instinct was to assume that this was a rather showy protest display. It might be, but it sounds to me like refusing to testify merits a reasonable act of self preservation.

Once again, I can't express how little it matters that CAE use biotech (or as they prefer, "tactical") media. The question is whether they were performing or plotting terrorism. That's a question that has nothing to do with art. I use fire all the time, but I am not an arsonist, and it would be absurd to investigate me on arson premeditation because I have been known to cook from time to time.

Posted by Kriston at June 18, 2004 11:57 AM