Community Corner

'Portal' Installation Connects Philly To Ireland, Poland, Lithuania

The popular art installation now lets Philadelphians see into Dublin, Ireland; Vilnius, Lithuania; and Lublin, Poland.

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A man holds up his dog so that pedestrians in Dublin, Ireland, can see them through a livestream portal as part of an art installation on the street in New York, Tuesday, May 14, 2024.
A man holds up his dog so that pedestrians in Dublin, Ireland, can see them through a livestream portal as part of an art installation on the street in New York, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

PHILADELPHIA — A portal opened up in Tuesday.

Not an actual portal, but a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week, two-way live stream art installation that connects Philly with three other cities in Europe.

The portal was unveiled Tuesday morning in LOVE Park, and it connects to Dublin, Ireland; Vilnius, Lithuania; and Lublin, Poland.

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Benediktas Gylys is the artist behind the portals.

The first portal in the United States was located in New York City. Situated at the Flatiron South Public Plaza at 23rd Street, the NYC portal connected to O'Connell Street in Dublin.

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The first portal ever linked Vilnius to Lublin in 2021.

"I felt a deep need to counter polarising ideas and to communicate that the only way for us to continue our journey on this beautiful spaceship called Earth is together," Gylys said on the Portals website.

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