Shia LaBeouf: I was raped during my art installation

             Shia LaBeouf says a woman raped him during his infamous “I Am Sorry” art installation earlier this year. The shocking revelation was made during an extended dialogue with Dazed writer Aimee Cliff. LaBeouf has posted a long email correspondence with Cliff, as well as video of a bizarre “interview” in which he and Cliff sit in silence for an hour in a London hotel room, wearing GoPro cameras and staring at each other without talking.

In the email exchange that led up to the weird wordless interview, which you can which in the video below, LaBeouf talks about “I Am Sorry,” during which he sat in a gallery and met, day after day, in silence, with anyone willing to wait in line. One of his interactions went very badly. He recounts:

“One woman who came with her boyfriend, who was out side the door when this happened, whipped my legs for 10 minutes and then striped my clothing and proceeded to rape me… then walked out with her lipstick smudged to her awaiting boyfriend who i image was quite hurt by it. All this happened in front of hundreds of people… Yea it was no good. Not just for me but her man as well.

On top of that my girl was in line to come see me because it was Valentines Day & i was living in the gallery sleeping in a sleeping bag for the duration of the event – we were separated for 5 days. No communication. So it really hurt her as well as i guess the news of it traveled through the line. She was only about 25 people back when she came in she asked for an explanation and i couldn’t speak so we both sat with this unexplained trauma silently. It was painful. The hardest part of the show.”

Meanwhile, here’s LaBeouf’s explanation for the silent “interview” video, also taken from his email correspondence with Cliff:

“I like the idea that we meet in person with a go pro photographic record but no interview… we just look into each others eyes for an hour.. connect on a soul level and film that as the interview and keep the words online.

So we will will both have go pro cameras strapped to our heads for the full hour and the footage will be presented raw as a split screen and you can use it on the Dazed video site. So I’m present in the magazine only in words obtained digitally and online I’m present only through a mute physical presence… and the reality of my self lies somewhere between and beyond the two. It’s thoroughly metamodern I think.”