Shia LaBeouf moves anti-Trump performance piece to New Mexico

Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Shia LaBeouf announced that his anti-Trump performance art piece, He Will Not Divide Us, is moving from New York City to Albuquerque.

"From the outset, the museum failed to address our concerns about the misleading framing of our piece as a political rally, rather than as a participatory performance artwork resisting the normalization of division," the actor, along with his partners Nastja Sade Ronkko and Luke Turner, said in a statement concerning the piece's previous home at the Museum of the Moving Image.

"On numerous occasions, we voiced serious concerns to the museum about hate speech occurring at the site of our project, and requested that the museum act responsibly in moderating this and providing the public a means of reporting such incidents. Our requests were not even acknowledged, let alone acted upon," the statement said.

"It is our understanding that the museum bowed to political pressure in ceasing their involvement with our project. We were only informed of the museum's capitulation in an email from their attorney, Brendan O'Rourke—a lawyer who we note also represents the current president. It is clear, therefore, that the Museum of the Moving Image is not fit to speak of our intent as artists."

He Will Not Divide Us, which featured a 24-hour livestreaming camera filming passerby repeating the phrase "He will not divide us" in protest of President Trump, will continue at the El Rey Theater.

In January, LaBeouf was arrested during the livestream after he had pushed a 25-year-old man who said "Hitler did nothing wrong" while pretending to take a selfie with him.

LaBeouf had scratched the man's face during the incident and faced misdemeanor assault charges. He was released shortly afterwards.