by Dorothea Braemer
At a hearing on December 18 in the Federal Courthouse in downtown Buffalo, US District Judge Richard Arcara postponed legal arguments in the more than three-and-a-half-year-old case against UB professor and internationally acclaimed artist Steve Kurtz because the prosecution lacked a key piece of evidence. The hearing, scheduled on account of a motion to dismiss the case, was open to the public. The courtroom was filled with reporters and many supporters of Kurtz.
Kurtz’s legal nightmare began when he was arrested in May 2004 after he called 911 due to the unexpected death of his wife, Hope. The police notified the FBI because they saw commonly used biological equipment, such as petri dishes and test tubes, in his house. Kurtz, one of the founders of the Critical Art Ensemble, an art group that explores the intersection of art and technology, was using this equipment in preparation for an installation at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. In this exhibit, the group would present a mobile laboratory in which visitors could test supposedly organic food for genetically engineered content.
9:03 am on December 29, 2007
