October 22, 2024
Michael Tanenbaum/PhillyVoice
The portal at LOVE Park is now linked to livestreams from Dublin, Ireland; Vilnius, Lithuania; and Lublin, Poland. The art installation is a part of a growing global network that will soon expand to Brazil and Ethiopia.
A large crowd gathered Tuesday morning in LOVE Park for the launch of Philadelphia's portal installation, a sculpture with a screen that connects the city to 24/7 livestreams from others stationed around the world.
The sculpture is part of an art project known as the Portals Network, which was developed by Lithuanian artist Benediktas Gylys. The intent is to foster global cultural exchange. The camera mounted on Philadelphia's portal is linked to existing sculptures in Dublin, Ireland; Vilnius, Lithuania; and Lublin, Poland. The network will later expand to include cities in Brazil and Ethiopia.
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"This is so much more than just art. It's a global conversation starter," said Michael Newmuis, the director of Philly's semiquincentennial celebration in 2026. "It's building bridges instead of walls, and with today's launch of the portal, Philadelphia's not just the City of Brotherly Love. Philadelphia is the city of global love."
The screen on the portal showed people in each of the three other cities waving and carrying signs welcoming Philly to the network. After the camera in Philadelphia went live, a group of dancers from the city's Odunde Festival performed for viewers in the other cities.
"At no better time than now do we need a project like the portal to bring us together as humans on this planet, on this tiny spaceship Earth that we are all on a journey," Joe Callahan, the Portal Network's ambassador in Philly, told the crowd.
Newmuis said the portal at LOVE Park was installed at no cost to the city. When it was assembled on Friday, the glass on the screen was partially cracked because crews tightened some of its screws too much.
"Like the Liberty Bell, there is a small crack, but that glass is not going to stop us," Newmuis said.
The first portals went live in 2021 in Vilnius and Lublin. Two more debuted this spring in Dublin and New York City, where the project had to be temporarily shut down due to "inappropriate behavior" that included flashing the camera, throwing eggs at it and sharing images of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The portal later reopened with modifications, including shortened hours and a sensor that blurs out images when people get too close to the camera.
The portal installed in Philly is the same portal that previously was in New York. City officials didn't say how long the portal will be at LOVE Park and what its hours of operation will be.
Newmuis said the sculpture is a gateway that offers people the opportunity to express themselves with others around the world.
"The portal is an invitation — a personal invitation to connect, to learn, to share, to be a part of something so much larger than ourselves," Newmuis said.
