LaBEOUF REBUFFED
Museum pulls ‘divisive’ protest cam
A Queens museum on Friday yanked a controversial anti-Trump art installation dreamed up by actor Shia LaBeouf, saying it had become a “flashpoint for violence.”
Launched on Inauguration Day, the “He Will Not Divide Us” project consisted of a Web cam mounted on a wall outside the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria.
The public was invited to chant, “He will not divide us,” into the camera, which was to live-stream its footage 24/7 for the rest of President Trump’s time in office.
But clashes between proand anti-Trump forces were too much for the museum.
“The installation created a serious and ongoing public safety hazard for the museum, its visitors, its staff, local residents and businesses,” it said in a statement Friday.
“While the installation began constructively, it deteriorated markedly after one of the artists was arrested at the site of the installation and ultimately necessitated this action.”
The statement said the controversy led to “numerous arrests” and prompted around-the-clock police patrols.
LaBeouf was arrested there on Jan. 26 after a scuffle.
The actor slammed the museum’s decision on Twitter.
“THE MUSEUM HAS ABANDONED US,” he wrote.
The local community board said the project drew a deluge of complaints from residents reporting noisy visitors loitering on their porches in the early morning hours, urinating and smoking marijuana.
Following the complaints, 114th Precinct police set up a 24-hour presence outside the museum, the NYPD said.
Community leaders said something had to be done.
“Why don’t they put the cam inside the museum? That has been raised by some individuals,” said Community Board 1 District Manager Florence Koulouris.
Claire Shulman, a museum board trustee and former Queens borough president, had called the project misguided and said it had been authorized without her input.
“I was not told. I don’t really know how it happened. I was upset when I found out about it,” she said.
“It was a mistake to do it. It’s unsafe for a public institution to do a project like this. It’s inappropriate for that location. It’s a city building. It’s a city institution. It’s one of the finest institutions in the city.”
Shulman, a Democrat, noted the museum is a tax-exempt nonprofit barred from engaging in partisan politics.
She applauded the decision to remove the installation.
“They did the right thing,” she said. “It was over safety. That’s a good reason.”
Opened in 1988, the museum showcases the art and history of film, television and digital media. It receives hundreds of thousands of dollars in government grants every year.
Apparently, you can’t maintain your “street cred” in Hollywood these days (or maybe it’s red-carpet cred) without indulging in some sort of over-the-top public attack on President Trump.
Enter actor Shia LaBeouf, who somehow persuaded the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens to host his bizarre antiTrump video “performance art,” titled “He Will Not Divide Us.”
Predictably, LaBeouf ’s project had the entirely opposite effect — and now the museum has axed it as “a flash point for violence” and a threat to public safety. That threat began with LaBeouf himself. The idea was to put a video camera outside the museum 24/7 and encourage people to walk up and chant the phrase “He will not divide us,” with it all livestreamed online.
Not surprisingly, not everyone agreed with LaBeouf ’s concept, and Trump supporters began showing up and shouting proTrump messages into the camera.
That led to a couple of violent confrontations with the actor/artist, one of which led to his arrest for misdemeanor assault.
It also led to a lot of bad feelings from the museum’s neighbors, who reportedly complained about people loitering on their porches at all hours, urinating and smoking marijuana. That led the 114th Precinct to set up a 24-hour patrol.
Frankly, we don’t know why MOMI — which documents the history of movies and TV — even bothered to indulge LaBeouf ’s ego with this ridiculous mess. (His last project consisted of a 24-hour marathon showing of all his past films, and don’t get us started about the paper-bag stunt.)
The museum happens to be one of New York’s treasures, but it should stick to its stated mission and learn how to say “no” to an off-the-wall celebrity.
As for LaBeouf, he could try staging his protest “art” in La-La Land. But would anyone notice?