Image: Kunsthalle Emden
Shilpa Gupta’s interactive work ‘TRUTH’ is now open for public participation at Kunsthalle Emden, where visitors are invited to throw tennis balls through a wooden wall that spells out the word “TRUTH.” The installation forms part of the exhibition ‘GROSSE BUCHSTABEN, GRELLE FARBEN’ (‘Large Letters, Bright Colors’), which examines the visual, symbolic and expressive possibilities of writing in contemporary art and graffiti.
Gupta designed this version of ‘TRUTH’ specifically for Kunsthalle Emden. Its central structure is a wooden wall punctured by circular holes arranged to form the English word. Tennis balls are provided for visitors to throw through the openings, making physical participation an essential part of the work rather than an optional addition to viewing it. The museum describes the activity as a way for visitors to become part of the artwork.
The work focuses on language and the power carried by words. In particular, it addresses the way people respond to terms that carry strong emotional charge and demand a position from those who encounter them. By turning the word “truth” into a target for a playful but directed action, the installation connects the appearance of language with the attitudes and reactions it can provoke.
‘GROSSE BUCHSTABEN, GRELLE FARBEN’ is on view at Kunsthalle Emden from August 2026 through 28 February 2027. The exhibition brings together contemporary artists and graffiti writers, presenting letters, words and sentences as more than carriers of literal meaning. Across the exhibition, writing appears as quotation, supplementary element or principal subject, with artistic treatment placing visual form in tension with linguistic and symbolic content.
The show also places graffiti in dialogue with contemporary painting and other approaches to text-based art. Kunsthalle Emden’s exhibition materials trace graffiti’s development as a global subculture since the 1970s, noting its use for political, social, religious and sociological subjects as well as for the artistic treatment of names. The exhibition considers shared questions of legibility, design and the relationship between signs and meaning, while also showing works that take deliberate positions either near to or against graffiti’s visual logic.
Kunsthalle Emden says its interest in writing within images extends into its collection history. Text has been an important concern since the Dada movement and continued to play a role in later movements including Neo-Expressionism and the Neue Wilde, both identified as collection strengths of the museum. The exhibition is co-curated by the artist MadC and includes works by artists such as Norbert Bisky, Monica Bonvicini, Claudia Comte, Nadine Fecht, Stefan Marx, Olaf Metzel, Rero, Anselm Reyle, Christian Thoelke and Erwin Wurm, alongside Gupta.
The exhibition coincides with ‘Hit the Trog’, a graffiti festival organised by the City of Emden from 14 to 16 August 2026. The festival opened a 2,300-square-metre wall along the city’s ‘Trogstrecke’ to more than 80 international graffiti artists. Kunsthalle Emden is located at Hinter dem Rahmen 13 in Emden and is open Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
