LOS ANGELES — Move over, Olympics. Make room for the real mid-February spectacle: "not famous" actor-turned-performance artist Shia LaBeouf.
Coming on the heels of a string of plagiarism problems, LaBeouf has joined meta-modernist forces with artists Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner to officially apologize for copying the works of others and regurgitating quotes like a professional Pinterest board.
See also: Shia LaBeouf Flees 'Nymphomaniac' Event After First Question
"Shia LaBeouf is sorry. Sincerely sorry," read Turner's press release Tuesday, which also urged people to visit the Cohen Gallery at 7354 Beverly Blvd. for a mysterious event.
It ended up being an #IAMSORRY art installation in which attendees got to sit in a tiny room with LaBeouf and watch him cry, as he wastes your time and doesn’t apologize — either that, or witness the birth of a true remix culture genius (more on that below).
 Regardless, the clock is ticking. The free exhibit runs through Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day.
"There is no photography inside the gallery, but you are very welcome to stop by," Turner wrote in an email to Mashable. "We look forward to your visit."
Tuesday's debut attracted a scant herd of roughly 15 to 20 people — mostly journalists. Walls outside the gallery were covered, and a single-file line trickled into the small space.
After enduring a bag search, you were allowed in, where the fun began. A woman — who many attendees surmised to be Rönkkö — entreated you to pick an object from a table to give to LaBeouf. 
Gifts included a bowl filled with tweets written to Shia, a bottle of Jack Daniel's, a small bottle of Brut, a whip and pliers, among other items.
As Turner promised, LaBeouf was "in situ" in a nearby room. Sitting on a chair, wearing a tuxedo, with palms down on a table and a bag over his head that read "I am not famous anymore" –- similar to the homespun mask he wore on the Berlin Film Festival's Nymphomaniac red carpet (see, below) — attendees presumed this to be LaBeouf.

Shia LaBeouf attends the Nymphomaniac premiere on Feb. 9 in Germany.
Image: Clemens Bilan/Getty Images


It seems only one reporter successfully photographed him, bag off. The mask had cutouts where the eyes were, and one attendee pointed out afterward that the bag was damp around his eyes — to suggest either that LaBeouf had been crying or that he had excellent make-up on beneath his bag.

"It was a waste," an entertainment industry professional, who asked not to be named, told Mashable. "It was just really weird to be in a tiny, tiny room and have this character in a tuxedo with his hands on the table and a mask that makes it look like he's crying."

The motivation for the art installation-apology stems from a series of plagiarism incidents, most notably LaBeouf's 2012 short film, HowardCantour.com. The flick gained infamy for its uncanny resemblance to a Daniel Clowes comic from 2007. 

LaBeouf also received heat for plagiarizing a majority of his apologies, and most recently, he made headlines when he stormed out of a press conference after dropping a cryptic Eric Cantona quote involving seagulls and sardines. 

He has taken to Twitter in the past to explain his actions (in the words of others), but as of Monday, his feed featured 21 consecutive tweets saying, "I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE."
On Tuesday, he simply said “#IAMSORRY” — and nothing more at time of publication.
The Transformers actor’s most recent big-screen role is Jerôme in Lars von Trier’s two-part sexually charged behemoth Nymphomaniac.

Offscreen, the deliberate, oddball antics mirror those of Joaquin Phoenix, who temporarily self-destructed in the name of performance art for a Casey Affleck mockumentary, and the #IAMSORRY installation has tinges of Marina Abramovic's "The Artist is Present," which showcased the famous performance artist sitting across from Museum of Modern Art patrons.

Said one attendee: "It wouldn't surprise me if he was just copying something else."

Of course, this seems to be where LaBeouf wants to be. This is the territory he has been exploring — artistically speaking — for months. And his unrelenting repetition begs the questions: Is it blatant copying? Or is it strategic repurposing? (Also, does anyone care?)

Earlier in January, LaBeouf retweeted the musings of self-proclaimed "uncreative" writer Kenneth Goldsmith, a poet and professor at the University of Pennsylvania:

Acting is plagiarism.
— Kenneth Goldsmith (@kg_ubu) January 2, 2014


Curation is as good as creation.
— Kenneth Goldsmith (@kg_ubu) December 29, 2013
According to The Wrap, LaBeouf in late January said the #stopcreating hashtag he tacked onto his Twitter apologies was part of a project created with Turner, Goldsmith and Training Day screenwriter David Ayer. Goldsmith, in his own feed, highlighted and lauded in early January this email interview with LaBeouf conducted by Bleeding Cool. The interview includes LaBeouf’s now-trademark quote-heavy response tactics. 

Oddly, Goldsmith also tweeted that the 27-year-old actor could've avoided a significant amount of backlash had he said his rehashed short film, tweets, apologies, interviews and other antics were intentional from the start.
 Goldsmith's reference to appropriation entails the spread of remix culture into other realms of the art world.
Imagine all the drama that could have been avoided had @thecampaignbook had admitted his strategy was one of appropriation from the start.
— Kenneth Goldsmith (@kg_ubu) January 4, 2014
Much like DJs do with sampling and mashups in popular music genres, other artists have argued that snippets of pre-existing works can be repurposed with little to no transformation as recycled or revisualized art. 

On the plagiarism front specifically, Jonathan Lethem wrote in passionate defense of the mortal writing sin in his essay "The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism," in which he calls for open-sourcing — while open-sourcing his own defense. Author David Shields wrote an entire book in this appropriated collage style; the controversial tome is titled Reality Hunger: A Manifesto and more than half of the book contains sentences and ideas lifted from pre-existing texts. Both authors’ projects were controversial; however, both were also met with critical acclaim. 

In a manifesto purportedly written by LaBeouf in 2011, the actor-director defines a meta-modernism movement. He cites the capricious relationships between "irony and sincerity, naivety and knowingness, relativism and truth, optimism and doubt" as one of its many tenets. Whether meta-modernist ideals credit or discredit #IAMSORRY, and whether LaBeouf’s recent antics are a mashup or collage of Joaquin Phoenix, Marina Abramovic and relics of his entertainment industry past — are all still up in the air.
LaBeouf’s motives seem to vacillate themselves between sincere apologies for plagiarizing and missives saying this was his performance-art plan all along. 

What's definite, though, is LaBeouf has taken the cryptic, cavalier route to make his point — one that requires tired critics and detractors to do homework and digging that, unsurprisingly, is not helping his case or charisma.

In short, LaBeouf wants you to know "Sorry, not sorry.”

One can only hope #IAMSORRY is not a culminating move but rather a step toward a more meaningful conclusion or — in the argot of magic — prestige.

People wait in line to enter Shia LaBeouf's art exhibit in Los Angeles.
Image: Valerie Macon/Getty Images