Remembering Steve Kurtz is an evening dedicated to exploring and honoring the life and work of Steve Kurtz, a pioneer in the fields of bioart and tactical media. As co-founder of Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), an influential collective of radical experimental artists, Kurtz was a frequent visitor to Amsterdam, where he participated in festivals such as Next 5 Minutes and World Information Org as a highly influential contributor to discussions surrounding the social and technological revolutions of the 1990s.
With books such as The Electronic Disturbance (1994), Electronic Civil Disobedience (1996) and Flesh Machine (1998), Kurtz and CAE defined the artistic and activist responses to corporate virtualization techniques. Were video and networks still possible as tools for cultural resistance?
Kurtz and CAE’s radical approach questioned the very foundations of what it meant to be an artist through a willingness to embrace “any kind of cultural hybrid; artist, scientist, technician, craftsperson, theorist, activist.” This hybridity however carried unexpected risks. And in 2004 the danger of challenging institutional boundaries became clear when Kurtz was targeted in an FBI investigation, leading to a wave of grand-jury subpoenas under the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act, that took years to fully resolve in his favour. Our event will engage with this difficult phase in his life, in part, through screening key extracts of the renowned film Strange Culture by Lynn Hershman. We are fortunate in that we will be joined by Lynn Hershman and Richard Pell online from the US for discussion and reflection.
Throughout the evening, we will hear from many individuals who knew Steve drawing on previously unseen film footage of interviews, as well as live discussion with distinguished contemporaries. Our explorations will range across key aspects of CAE’s’ output. Finally, we will launch the Dutch translation of Unreality and Its Discontents: The Struggle Against Christian Nationalism, the last book that Steve completed at the very end of his life, in an act that couldn’t have been timelier or more urgent.
Organized by Menno Grootveld, Lucas Evers, David Garcia and Geert Lovink.
May 7, 2026, 19.30-21.30, Waag Futurelab, Nieuwmarkt, Amsterdam.
Waag event page: https://waag.org/nl/event/remembering-steve-kurz/.