Shia LaBeouf to walk meta-marathon around Stedelijk Museum
The work comes as part of a series of performances based upon Turner's “Metamodernist Manifesto”, which has since been credited to LaBeouf. Works have included #IAMSORRY performed in Los Angeles, in which someone claiming to be LaBeouf sat for six days silently crying in front of visitors, wearing a tuxedo and a brown paper bag over his head, stamped with the words “I am not famous anymore”, a staged walk out of Lars von Trier's press conference for his film Nymphomanic, and an appearance at the Berlin Film Festival where LaBeouf donned the same brown paper bag.
On Twitter, LaBeouf has described his work as a call for optimism and magical realism in spite of –or in connection with –self-awareness, reaching for “the mercurial condition between and beyond irony and sincerity, naivety and knowingness, relativism and truth, optimism and doubt”. LaBeouf’s authenticity has come under heavy scrutiny after he was accused of plagiarising Daniel Clowe's comic book Justin M. Damiano for his short film Howard Cantour released earlier this year. The actor has since offered an apology to Clowes, tweeting out “I got lost in the creative process and neglected to follow proper accreditation”. In a somewhat misguided stunt, LaBeouf sent a sky written message over Los Angles to Clowes which read “I am sorry Daniel Clowes”, leaving some critics non-plussed as Clowes lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Reports indicate that Clowes could sue for compensation. LaBeouf continued his plagiarism apology tour on Twitter, copy-pasting famous apologies onto his account including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's landmark apology in 2006 for facebook's failure to proper privacy controls, and UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's 2012 apology for his party breaking a pledge not to support a student tuition fee hike. This year the actor was caught up in a series of public meltdowns and court appearances. In June, he was led away in handcuffs from a showing of “Cabaret” after yelling at actors during the performance. As a police officer escorted the actor out of the theater, LeBeouf allegedly said, " "F--- you. This is f---ing bull---. Do you know my life? Do you know who the f--- I am? Do you know who I am," police said. Appearing in a Manhattan courtroom, the actor was formally charged with criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and harassment. He has since settled charges by agreeing to receive treatment for alcohol abuse.LaBeouf has received sympathy from controversial actor Mel Gibson, coming to his rescue during an interview posted on IndieWire. "When I see someone like Shia LaBeouf with the bag on his head and stuff, my heart goes out to the poor guy," Gibson said. "He'll be alright. I actually like the kid, I've never met him but I think he's good."
LaBeouf's 'metamarathon' takes place as part of the Stedelijk's symposium Metamodernism: the return of history.#METAMARATHON at the @Stedelijk Amsterdam 09.25.14
— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) September 22, 2014