[aha] Critical Art Ensemble at Aksioma Project Space, Ljubljana

[Aksioma]

Aksioma -- Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, presents:

*Critical Art Ensemble & Institute for Applied Autonomy*
/*Seized*/
/Solo exhibition/
http://www.aksioma.org/seized <http://www.aksioma.org/seized/index.html>

*Aksioma **|**Project Space*
Komenskega 18, Ljubljana
13 - 29 June 2012

*Artist's presentation and exhibition opening: *Wednesday, 13 June 2012 
at 8 pm
*Screening of the movie /Strange Culture:/*Wednesday, 27 June 2012 at 9 pm

*/True Crime/: Open Call for Submissions *lasting for the entire 
duration of the show /Seized/.
Anyone can contribute to the exhibition /Seized/ by becoming part of the 
/True Crime /installation.
Read the full instruction: http://www.aksioma.org/pdf/True_Crime_eng.pdf
*

Images available for free download:*
http://www.aksioma.org/press/seized.zip

-----
*Critical Art Ensemble & Institute for Applied Autonomy*
/*Seized*/

The theme of the /Seized/ exhibition started as a shocking personal 
experience in the paranoid US political climate. In spring 2004, the FBI 
raided the home of art professor and CAE member Steve Kurtz. What 
followed was a four-year legal case that was finally dropped in 2008 due 
to all evidence of any crime being "insufficient on its face".

The reason for the FBI raid is telling... Steve's wife Hope died 
entirely unexpectedly because of an undiagnosed heart defect. Police who 
responded to Kurtz's 911 call for help noticed a benign-looking 
chemistry laboratory in the house and informed the FBI, who considered 
"preparations for an upcoming show" to be a lame excuse. During the 
three-day raid, the authorities not only confiscated Kurtz's computers, 
archives, artworks and a set of books he was using for research on his 
upcoming book project, but also his wife's corpse. Steve himself was 
interrogated for 22 hours with the aim of charging him with 
"bioterrorism" and even murder.

In the installation /Body of Evidence/, CAE and IAA turn the 
perpetrator-victim relationship of this horrifying personal experience 
upside-down. In the same manner in which the FBI stole their artistic 
material, the artists confiscated pizza boxes, Gatorade bottles, hazmat 
suits and biological sample bags, as well as written notes and a single 
cigar butt that were left behind by the FBI at the scene of the crime -- 
Steve Kurtz's lawn.

The display of the notes and papers that the federal agents wrote during 
the raid resembles a subversive strategy of counter-appropriation, as 
the artists use the objects the FBI left behind as "evidence" of their 
own investigation, and with that act, the power structure is subverted. 
As the actions and rationale of the FBI and the Department of Justice 
are questioned, a rare window into the anatomy of a "bio-terror" 
investigation opens up...

As we can read in the catalogue of the /Seized /exhibition:

"The project as an art exhibition raises questions about artistic 
freedom of expression and governmental repression, reflects about the 
interdependency between politics and business, and presents artistic 
strategies that try to undercut this. America, the country of freedom, 
was the setting for the events which underlie this exhibition. It shows 
that it is not self-evident for artists, even in a democracy, to 
criticize the structures of power and to publicly take a firm stand.

Besides the complex installation /Body of Evidence/, the exhibition 
/Seized/also documents material for works and performances by CAE that 
Steve and Hope were working on just before the raid, such as /Free Range 
Grain/(2003--2004) and /Molecular Invasion/(2002--2003), that were 
confiscated from their home by the FBI along with various other 
household objects."


*Critical Art Ensemble (CAE)*is a collective of five tactical media 
practitioners of various specializations including computer graphics and 
web design, film/video, photography, text art, book art, and 
performance.Formed in 1987, CAE's focus has been on the exploration of 
the intersections between art, critical theory, technology, and 
political activism. The group has exhibited and performed at diverse 
venues internationally such as the Whitney Museum and The New Museum in 
NYC; The ICA, London; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt and Musée d'Art 
Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
The collective has written 6 books, and its writings have been 
translated into 18 languages.

*The Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA)*was founded in 1998 as an 
anonymous collective of engineers, designers, artists and activists 
united by the cause of individual and collective self-determination. 
Toward this end, the IAA has produced numerous projects under its 
flagship initiative, Contestational Robotics.?The IAA has won numerous 
awards including the 2000 Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction and 
several Prix Ars Electronica Honorable Mentions; and a Rhizome New Media 
Fellowship.

----------

/*Strange Culture*/
*A film by Lynn Hershman Leeson*

/Strange Culture/documents the surreal nightmare of 
internationally-acclaimed artist and professor Steve Kurtz which began 
when his wife Hope died in her sleep of heart failure. Police who 
responded to Kurtz's 911 call deemed Kurtz's art suspicious and called 
the FBI. Within hours the artist was detained as a suspected 
"bioterrorist" as dozens of federal agents in Hazmat suits sifted 
through his work and impounded his computers, manuscripts, books, his 
cat, and even his wife's body.

The film premiered January 19, 2007 at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival 
was also shown in the 2007 Berlin Film Festival.

Directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Thomas Jay Ryan, Peter Coyote, Josh Kornbluth
Music by The Residents
Running time: 75 min.
Language: English

*Lynn Hershmann Leeson*is a filmmaker and new media artist who has been 
awarded the Siemens-Medienkunstpreis award from the ZKM, Karlsruhe, as 
well as the Golden Nica Prize at the 1999 Ars Electronica.

----------
*Catalogue available at the gallery:*
/SEIZED. Critical Art Ensemble & Institute for Applied Autonomy./Berlin 
2009
Regine Rapp und Christian de Lutz für Art Laboratory Berlin 
<http://www.artlaboratory-berlin.org/> (Hrsg.):
44 p., color, text in English and German
9,00 EUR (Special price at Aksioma: 5,00 EUR)
----------

*Production: *Aksioma -- Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2012
_www.aksioma.org <http://www.aksioma.org/>_

Artistic Director: Janez Jans(a
Executive Producer: Marcela Okretic(
Assistant Production: Sonja Grdina
Public Relations: Mojca Zupanic(
Technical Supervisor: Valter Udovic(ic'

*Thanks: *Art Laboratory Berlin

/*The programme of Aksioma Institute is supported by the Ministry of 
Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia and 
the Municipality of Ljubljana.*/
/Sponsor: Datacenter d.o.o./


*Contact:*
Marcela Okretic(, 041 250 830, _aksioma4 at siol.net 
<mailto:aksioma4 at siol.net>_
*Aksioma | Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana*
Neubergerjeva 25, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
_www.aksioma.org <http://www.aksioma.org/>_
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