'Flashpoint for Violence': Shia LeBeouf's 'He Will Not Divide Us' Shut Down

Shia LeBeouf's "He will not divide us" project has five new words to replace its original mantra: "The museum has abandoned us."

The installation and internet streaming performance launched outside the Museum of the Moving Image in the Queens borough of New York City at 9 a.m. on January 20, the day of Donald Trump's inauguration as the 45th president of the United States. It was designed to remain in place and active 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the next four yours, or until the end of Trump's presidency. But the museum closed the installation on Friday after only three weeks.

LeBeouf—the actor who appeared in the Disney Channel series Even Stevens and went on to star in films, including the Transformers movies, and also became a controversial performance artist—collaborated on the project with Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner. The concept was simple: A white wall was erected outside the museum with the words "He will not divide us" written in black block letters over a mounted video camera. The artists invited visitors and passersby to gather in front of the lens at any time of day or night and say those words, once, twice or hundreds of times. Footage was livestreamed on the project website. In the first days after the project launched, LeBeouf could often be found standing at the wall and chanting those words.

"The mantra 'HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US' acts as a show of resistance or insistence, opposition or optimism, guided by the spirit of each individual participant and the community," the artists explained in the project description. The project never mentions Trump, and is supposedly not about being anti-Trump. "We're anti-division out here. Everyone's invited," LeBeouf told the Associated Press on the Monday after inauguration. "I'm just saying, 'Be nice to each other.'"

But within a week, LeBeouf, who has a long history of altercations and arrests, ensured that the chanting of the mantra wasn't the only action caught on the livestream. On January 26, he got into an argument with a man at the site and reportedly pulled his scarf, scratched his face, pushed him and caused him to fall to the ground. He was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault and a harassment violation.

"While the installation began constructively, it deteriorated markedly after one of the artists was arrested on the site of the installation and ultimately necessitated this action," the museum said in a statement explaining its decision to halt the project. "Over the course of the installation, there have been dozens of threats of violence and numerous arrests, such that police felt compelled to be stationed outside the installation 24 hours a day, seven days a week." The museum said the installation had become a "flashpoint for violence," though it didn't elaborate on the nature of the threats or additional arrests.

"We are proud to have launched this engaging and thought-provoking digital art installation which was experienced by millions of online viewers worldwide," the museum continued. "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."

Though the museum is done with the project, LeBeouf and his partners are not. The video on the project's website, which formerly showed the real-time feed from Queens, now says in white block letters against a black background—like a negative of the wall—that "the museum has abandoned us."

Lower down, following a brief description of the project, the artists added: "On February 10, 2017, the Museum of the Moving Image abandoned the project. The artists, however, have not." Though they have hinted heavily that the project will continue elsewhere, they have not yet posted any details.