Actor Shia LaBeouf’s art exhibit shut down
New York, Feb 11 (IANS) A museum in Queens borough in New York has shut down an online art installation by the actor Shia LaBeouf, calling it a “serious and ongoing public safety hazard” after the actor was arrested and the exhibit became a target for threats of violence.
The participatory exhibit, “He Will Not Divide Us,” was a collaboration between Mr. LaBeouf and the artists Luke Turner and Nastja Sade Ronkko, New York Times reported.
Intended as a rebuke to US President Donald Trump, the exhibit hinged on a video camera mounted on the outside of the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, into which passers-by were invited to repeat the phrase “he will not divide us”, the report added.
The aim was to stream online images of people repeating those words throughout Trump’s time in office.
After it began on January 20, the exhibition quickly became a hot spot for politically charged confrontations, and the video camera caught it all.
The museum cited LaBeouf’s arrest along with “dozens of threats of violence and numerous arrests” in announcing that it had closed the exhibit.
“The installation had become a flash point for violence and was disrupted from its original intent,” the museum said in a statement.