STATEMENT

February 18, 2017

On February 10, 2017, The Museum of the Moving Image abandoned HEWILLNOTDIVIDE.US. Their evident lack of commitment to the project is damning.

From the outset, the museum failed to address our concerns about the misleading framing of our piece as a partisan political rally, rather than as a participatory performance artwork, open to all, 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.

Nonetheless, there had been no incidents of physical violence at the site of our project that we are aware of, nor that we had been informed of at any stage by the museum.

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 U.S. president.

It is clear, therefore, that the Museum of the Moving Image is not fit to speak of our intent as artists.

As of February 18, 2017, we are proud to be continuing HEWILLNOTDIVIDE.US at the El Rey Theater, Albuquerque.

LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner