On Jan. 20, 2017, immediately after President Donald Trump's inauguration, an art installation went up at the Museum of Moving Image in New York City. At the interactive exhibit, titled "HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US," visitors were invited to say the words "he will not divide us" into a live stream camera mounted outside the museum. The stream was intended to be up for the duration of President Donald Trump's term in office, and ended up being broadcast to over five million viewers in its first month.
The brainchild of actor Shia LeBeouf and artists Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner, the political project faced criticism and controversy since its inception.
On Feb. 10, not even a month after it went live, the camera was removed by the museum, which cited hate speech and constant criticism from far-right extremists as the reasoning. A week later, the artists relocated the project to Albuquerque, only to face similar problems as they had in New York.
On March 8, the project was moved again, this time to an "undisclosed location" to avoid further public interference, and was reduced to a live stream video featuring a white flag, emblazoned with the project's name in a bold black font.
Finally, on Wednesday, it seemed that the performance art project had found a permanent home. The artists moved the project to the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology to the United Kingdom — in Liverpool, home of the Beatles. The trio felt that the United States just wasn't the place for their project.
"Events have shown that America is simply not safe enough for this artwork to exist," LaBeouf, Rönkkö and Turner said in a statement.
However, apparently, neither is Liverpool.
On Thursday, FACT removed the installation due to "police advice" and "dangerous, illegal trespassing."
The stream was taken down from the website Thursday, and it was not confirmed whether it would be moved to another location, or if it would go live again.
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