a great week - Steve Kurtz; Benjy Davies and Jenny Mendes

This past week The Cleveland Institute of Art played host to a ceramicist, Jenny Mendes; a printmaker, Benjy Davies; and the Bickford Visiting Artist, Steve Kurtz. In addition Cinematheque screened the film “Strange Culture” and the Painting Department conducted a panel featuring the artists from “Light of Day” – an exhibition currently on view at William Busta Gallery here in Cleveland.

(Weeks like this remind me what an amazing environment I have the privilege to work and teach in. There is such an abundance of energy and so many creative minds.)

All of these events received high marks from those in attendance. Steve Kurtz gave a particularly powerful talk. With great wit, he spoke about his career and the difficulties his encountered through the course of his work.

Kurtz, for those of you who weren’t able to attend, is, along with his late wife Hope, a founding member of the “tactical media” protest and performance artist collective, the Critical Art Ensemble. The group’s work has dealt with, among other subjects, issues of biotechnology. The Ensemble has authored several books including “Digital Resistance: Explorations in Tactical Media” and “Electronic Civil Disobedience and Other Unpopular Ideas.” The groups’ work has been presented at such prestigious venues as The Whitney Museum, The New Museum in New York, The Corcoran, The ICA in London, the MCA in Chicago, the Musee d’art de la Ville de Paris and the London Museum of Natural History.

As detailed in the film “Strange Culture” by Lynn Hershman Leeson, from 2004 to 2008, Kurtz had hanging over him the threat of a 20 year prison sentence. These charges came about as the result of an investigation relating to the death of his wife Hope due to heart failure and were the product of a gross and rather sinister misinterpretation of the work he and his wife were doing. Over the course of those four years, and in the shadow of his tragic personal loss, Kurtz has persevered in the defense of his own civil liberties and by extension in defense of the rights of all other artists and free thinkers. It has only been since late May of 2008 that the Buffalo Prosecutor’s Office declined to reopen the case which had been dismissed. Steve Kurtz is now free.

** Special thanks to Sarah Paul for acting as liaison with Steve Kurtz.

http://www.critical-art.net

http://www.critical-art.net/biotech/sra/SRAweb/index.html

http://www.strangeculture.net/

http://www.cia.edu/academicResources/cinematheque/filmSchedule.php?action=upcoming

March 19 and 20 - CIA welcomes Bickford Visiting Artist Steve Kurtz!

Wednesday, March 4th was Brett Kashmere's Hella Hybrid talk, and although mid-terms and the coming spring break kept some away -- the talk was well worth hearing and seeing. Brett has made some interesting work and took on issues that have to do with copyright in really creative ways. Check out Brett's blogs and his website... and go see him whenever you get the chance to hear him speak or see his work first hand.

This week Bickford Visiting Artist Steve Kurtz.

Thursday, March 19 at 5 pm. Cinematheque Screening of Strange Culture.

Friday, March 20 at 2:30, Bickford Visiting Artist Talk by Steve Kurtz, the subject of the film Strange Culture.

Both events are in Aitken.

See below for further details.

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Also this week Printmaking Visiting Artist Benjy Davies.

Printmaking Department (VATe) Visiting Artist:
Benjy Davies
Wednesday, March 18
10 am
G209 (Gund)
Presentation of Work and Demonstration beginning at 10 am and continuing through the day

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Thursday, March 19
Food arrives at 4:15
Starting at 5 pm – Aitken Auditorium

Cinematheque SCREENING of
Strange Culture
Followed by a Q + A with Artist Steve Kurtz

Free to CIA and Case ID holders and $5 to general public.
(Proceeds benefit Cinematheque.)

The film examines the case of artist and professor Steve Kurtz, a member of the Critical Art Ensemble (CAE). The work of Kurtz and other CAE members dealt with genetically modified food and other issues of science and public policy. After his wife, Hope, died of heart failure, paramedics arrived and became suspicious when they noticed petri dishes and other scientific equipment related to Kurtz's art in his home. They summoned the FBI, who detained Kurtz within hours on suspicion of bioterrorism.

As Kurtz could not legally talk about the case, the film uses actors to interpret the story, as well as interviews with Kurtz and other figures involved in the case. Through a combination of dramatic reenactment, news footage, animation, and testimonials, the film scrutinizes post-9/11 paranoia and suggests that Kurtz was targeted because his work questions government policies. At the film's close, Kurtz and his long-time collaborator Dr. Robert Ferrell, former chair of the Genetics Department at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, await a trial date.


(update) As of late May 2008, the Buffalo Prosecutor has declined to reopen the case within the 30 day window in which he was allowed to do so. So, Steve Kurtz is free.
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Friday, March 20 - 2:30 pm
Aitken Auditorium
Food Arrives at 2:00 pm
Bickford Visiting Artist’s Talk
Steve Kurtz
Free and Open to the Public!

This lecture is a brief overview of the points where applied life sciences, politics, economy, and cultural representations begin to intersect. On the one hand, it will examine the economic and political pressures that push life science research in one direction at the expense of another, and the rhetorics used to justify these trajectories of research. On the other hand, it will also consider the release of derivative products into the public sphere, and how the public is socialized to accept them. These two moments, in which the cultural context for research initiatives or biotechnological products is in the first stage of construction, are the points of intervention where cultural activists can have the greatest impact. This presentation will be illustrated by participatory theater projects by Critical Art Ensemble.

Reception to Follow at Mi Pueblo.

March 4, 6, 19th and 20th -- CIA Events!

*** These events are open to the public.

Hella Hybrid Series
TIME- Digital Arts
Brett Kashmere
Wednesday, March 4
7:00 PM
Aitken Auditorium - CIA Gund - 11141 East Blvd., Cleveland

Brett Kashmere is a Pittsburgh- based filmmaker, curator, and casual cultural historian. His work combines traditional research methods with hybrid interfaces, handmade equipment, and materialist aesthetics. Through intricate experimental documentaries and unadorned camera movies, Kashmere explores the intersection of history and (counter-) memory, geographies of identity, and the politics of representation. His films, videos, scholarship, and curated programs have been presented at festivals, conferences and venues internationally and used in university curricula. The film scholar Thomas Waugh writes that Kashmere’s essay-film Valery’s Ankle “may well give momentum (and integrity) to the discourses of sports, masculinity, and nationalism in Canadian cinemas.” Kashmere currently teaches in the Cinema Studies Program at Oberlin College in Ohio and is the founding editor of INCITE! Journal of Experimental Media & Radical Aesthetics.

http://www.brettkashmere.com

http://www.incite-online.net

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Lunch on Fridays and Key Foundation Diversity Visiting Artist:
Jason Pierce
Friday, March 6
12:15 pm
Ohio Bell Auditorium - CIA Gund Building - 11141 East Blvd., Cleveland

A 2005 graduate from The Cleveland Institute of Art's TIME program, Jason
Pierce has worked as an Art Director with Wunderman Team Detroit since 2006.
Jason works in Brand Development and assists in envisioning advertising names
for some of the biggest firms in the country.

Sponsored by the Foundation and Liberal Arts Environments, Lunch on Fridays is free and open to the public. Pizza is served for the audience. Venues unless otherwise noted are located in CIA’s Gund building at 11141 East Blvd., Cleveland, OH 44106.

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Bickford Visiting Artist Program in conjunction with Cinematheque
Screening of Strange Culture
A film by native Clevelander Lynn Hershman Leeson – the subject of the film is a visiting artist Steve Kurtz (speaking on Friday at 2 pm)
Thursday, March 19
5 pm
Aitken Auditorium

This showing of the film will be free for all CIA and Case community members and $5.00 to the general public. The viewing time has been set at 4 pm to allow time for those who wish to attend the Cleveland Film Festival. All proceeds benefit Cinematheque.

CIA Gund Building, 11141 East Blvd., Cleveland, OH

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** Outside the Institute and also on March 19 opening reception for “The Way We Live Now” at the Cleveland Foundation’s Hanna Building, 1422 Euclid Ave, Suite 1300, featuring students from the Institute – 5 to 7 pm.
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Bickford Visiting Artist
Steve Kurtz
Friday, March 20
2:15 pm (Talk starts at 2:30 pm)
Aitken Auditorium

Kurtz is the subject of Leeson’s documentary Strange Culture.
Steve Kurtz is a noted artist and founding member of the participatory theater group Critical Art Ensemble. He currently teaches at the University of Buffalo, The State University of New York, and is a former professor with Carnegie Mellon. Kurtz came to national and international attention when, in 2004, on reporting the death of his wife, Hope Kurtz, he was subsequently arrested on suspicion of bioterrorism. Strange Culture tells the bizarre tale of how an artist, in possession of recognizably benign bacteria used in museum and gallery exhibits, became the target of a criminal investigation driven by the U.S. Patriot Act.

CIA Gund Building, 11141 East Blvd., Cleveland, OH