Shia LaBeouf has shut down his anti-Donald Trump project after gunshots were reported in the Albuquerque area.
The 30-year-old actor set up the project – entitled ‘He Will Not Divide Us’ – after President Trump’s inauguration last month, which invited the public to recite the title phrase into a camera linked up to a livestream at hewillnotdivide.us, and was supposed to run for the duration of the president’s four-year term.
However, taking to Twitter on Thursday (23.02.17), the ‘American Honey’ actor announced that the project would no longer be running, after reports of gunshots in the area left him concerned for the safety of willing participants.
He wrote: "We have taken the stream down after shots were reported in the area. The safety of everybody participating in our project is paramount."
The news comes after Shia – along with Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner, who also produced the project – released a statement last week announcing the protest project would be moving from its home at the Museum of Moving Image in Queens, New York, to Albuquerque’s El Rey Theatre after concerns of violence were raised at the original site.
Taking to website thecampaignbook.com, the trio wrote: "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 normalisation of division.
"In fact, the museum demonstrated a spectacular lack of judgement – and courtesy to us as artists – by neglecting to consult us when they staged a political rally at the site of our artwork on January 29, 2017.
"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."
According to TMZ.com, police claim no-one was found with a gun at the Albuquerque site, and it is unknown as of yet whether the project will be revived at a later date.
Shia LaBeouf shuts down anti-Trump project
