On Jan. 20, 2017, Inauguration Day, he set up inside the Museum of the Moving Image and invited passersby to come in and say on camera, “He will not divide us”—also the name of the overall project.
LaBeouf was arrested outside the museum on Jan. 25, supposedly after grabbing a man’s scarf and scratching him, but ultimately wasn’t charged with anything. The museum shut the project down on Feb. 10, explaining it had created an “unexpectedly volatile situation and serious public safety hazards,” so LaBeouf moved it to the El Rey Theater in Albuquerque, N.M.
It was almost immediately vandalized with red spray paint, but other locals came voluntarily to help clean up.
“On the bright side as long as Shia and his team continue to maintain it, we’ll keep providing the space,” El Rey owner Stephen Segura told Fox News at the time. “Our biggest concern is not wanting to desensitize the artistic community in Albuquerque. We’re a community of artists; it’s bringing up a lot of conversation. Someone flashed nudity, and someone flashed a gun [at the camera], and it was promptly handled by police. We have plenty of cameras around the theater that people don’t notice, and if we see anything we’ll work as a community to stop it.”
On Feb. 18, 2017, the project was moved to a wall outside the theater. The Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, Liverpool, adopted “He Will Not Divide Us” in March and then, according to the project’s website, it was taken over by Le Lieu unique, a contemporary art and music center, in Nantes, France, in October.