He Will Not Divide Us: Shia LaBeouf’s Exhibit Shut Down over Public Safety

Shia LaBeouf’s exhibit that lambasted President Donald Trump has been shut down because it had turned into “a flashpoint for violence”.

The piece of performance art encouraged the public to say “He will not divide us” into a camera mounted outside the Museum of the Moving Image in New York.

Shia LaBeouf was arrested after a fracas at the site, which police began manning round the clock.

The Transformers star criticized the museum’s decision to shut down the exhibit.

On Twitter, Shia LaBeouf posted an image of the live stream, which now reads: “The museum has abandoned us.”

Photo City of Austin

He co-founded the project, which was launched on the day President Trump was inaugurated, on January 20, with artists Luke Turner and Nastja Ronkko.

The live-stream ran for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the artists had planned to maintain it throughout Donald Trump’s presidency.

However, in the early hours of January 26, Shia LaBeouf was charged with assault and harassment after a confrontation with a man that was broadcast on the live-stream.

The New York Daily News reported that a number of white supremacists turned up at the site over the past three weeks, including one apparently wearing a Nazi hat.

In a statement, the museum said the atmosphere at the exhibit, named HEWILLNOTDIVIDE.US, “deteriorated markedly” after Shia LaBeouf’s arrest.

There had been “dozens of threats of violence and numerous arrests” and it had become “a flashpoint for violence”, the statement added.

The museum said: “Until public safety concerns overrode the intent of the installation, HEWILLNOTDIVIDE.US generated an important conversation allowing interaction among people from many backgrounds and with different viewpoints.”

A statement on the exhibit’s website says: “On February 10, 2017, the Museum of the Moving Image abandoned the project. The artists, however, have not.”