Shia LaBeouf’s last art project, HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US, was persistently targeted by hate-spewing white supremacists, even as it switched locations. Now he’s embarking on a new endeavor based out of Helsinki’s Kiasma museum; however, LaBeouf himself will be participating from an unknown location in Finland, where he will stay for a month.
The piece, titled #ALONETOGETHER, involves LaBeouf and his two collaborators—Natasha Rönkkö and Luke Turner—secluding themselves in separate cabins in the country’s Lapland region. Visitors to Kiasma can enter yet another structure to speak directly to the trio, who can in turn text their audience back, but cannot interact with one another. The museum is running a livestream in which the texts appear.
Just as HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US was coopted by ”alt-right” trolls, it seems, based on the stream today, there is at least some attempt to do the same here. In this case, however, LaBeouf and his fellow artists have control over what is being broadcast given that there is no audio and only their responses appear. You can see some screenshots of what transpired below.