There are few people who can out-Franco James Franco, but Shia LeBeouf is one of them. The actor was most recently sighted running around the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, dressed exclusively in Day-glo Spandex. While uninformed visitors might have seen LaBeouf’s performance as ‘insane’ (and I agree with those visitors), LaBeouf had actually plotted the piece with functioning human/museum curator Hendrik Folsters.
The premise behind the ‘metamarathon’ (ugh, it hurts to say those words) was to explore “how the world would be perceived by children of the eighties if they were similarly absorbed by social media and the culture of celebrity.”
Interesting premise, maybe, although I’m not quite sure how running around a museum 144 times dressed in Modell’s spandex totally executes the concept. Seems fun, though! LaBeouf timed his performance to coordinate with the museum’s conference, also dedicated to exploring how ‘social media’ impacts the world.
To be honest, any time I hear anyone talk about how social media has changed anything, I run for safety and hide under my bed (the internet has pulled us apart! Pulled us together! Things are too fast! But wait, too slow! FACEBOOK). Still, LaBeouf’s performance was well-received and had purpose, I guess. It’s a pretty clear demarcation from LaBeouf’s other past stunts, like the time he plagiarized an entire book (whoopsies!), the time he plagiarized all of his apologies (aw, it was an accident!), or the time he was thrown out of Walgreen’s for acting up in the gummy bear aisle (happens to all of us). And while I’m not totally sure how “running around in Spandex” explores “the impact of modern media in the 21st century,” I’m also confident no one else does, either.