LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner Launch Trump-Inspired Art Project ‘HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US’
Shia LaBeouf and his performance art co-conspirators Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner launched their latest project at 9am ET today at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York. Entitled HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US, the project invites the pubic to recite the words “he will not divide us” into a camera mounted on a wall outside of the museum. Shia LaBeouf along with actor/raper Jaden Smith are at the museum today for the kick off the durational work. It will be open to all, 24 hours a day, seven days a week and live-streamed continuously at the website http://hewillnotdivide.us/ for four years or the span of Donald J. Trump’s presidency.
HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US is just the latest entry in the portfolio of works by LaBeouf, Rönkkö and Turner. Among the group’s other projects are #TAKEMEANYWHERE, which found the trio hitchhiking across the the United States from May 23-June 23, 2016; #TOUCHMYSOUL, a four-day work that invited people to call LaBeouf, Rönkkö and Turner on the phone to speak to them and “touch their soul”; and #ALLMYMOVIES, which invited visitors to join LaBeouf at the Angelika Film Center to watch all of the actor’s movies consecutively in reverse chronological order. The threesome’s most recent project was #ANDINTHEEND at the Sydney Opera House in December 2016. Part of BingeFest, the two-day performance invited the public, one-by-one, to stand before the artists to deliver a statement that would begin with “And in the end…”. The messages were then recited by one of the artists and broadcast via a LED ticker outside the building.
As for the trio’s latest work, HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US, the artists see it as “a show of resistance or insistence, opposition or optimism, guided by the spirit of each individual participant and the community.” In terms of location, it is likely no coincidence that they selected a museum in the borough where Trump grew up, Queens, New York, to stage a barely veiled protest of his presidency. Those coming to participate in the project can recite the phrase as many times, and for as long as they wish.