‘The Truth Booth,’ a Pop-Up Video Message Tent, Was Open for 8 Hours Yesterday in Brooklyn

Starting at noon, visitors to the Metrotech Commons just off Brooklyn‘s Jay Street were treated to an unexpected sight: a twenty-foot balloon tent in the shape of a speech bubble with a single word, “Truth” written on it. Signs placed all around the park in the shape of speech and thought bubbles displayed phrases like “The Truth Is I See You,” “The Truth Is I Love You,” “The Truth Is I Remember You,” and more, sometimes in different languages.

Behold, The Truth Booth, part of In Search of the Truth, a years-long project by Brooklyn artist Hank Willis Thomas in collaboration with the Cause Collective and presented by Public Art Fund. Inside it, guests are invited to record a video message that begins with “The truth is…” The messages can be personal, vague, funny- whatever the recorder sees fit, and have a maximum duration of two minutes. At promptly 8 pm, the tent was gone.

The Truth Booth has been traveling the world for quite some time now, collecting messages in multiple languages from passersby and displaying them on its website, which states that the project’s goal is “to try to capture as many definitions, confessions and thoughts on The Truth as possible, creating a diverse ‘portrait’ of people across the globe.”

The Booth will not return to New York City until October, until such time it will continue across the country and overseas.

Next, read about the mobile art gallery on the lawn of the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Get in touch with the author @jinwoochong.