Portal damage revealed by wind is from January, police say; installation may leave Philly if new funding isn’t found
The Portals organization said it hopes to relocate the video art installation to another location in Philadelphia, but that would require the support of new financial sponsors.
High winds blew off the cover on the Portal video art installation at LOVE Park, revealing damage to its glass screen and raising online speculation about what happened — but the damage occurred in January, police said.
But that wasn’t the only revelation on Friday about the Portal.
In response to questions about the damage, the organization that brought the installation to Philadelphia said that it has struggled with funding to repair the Portal and to keep it permanently in the city.
Nicolas Klaus, a spokesperson for Portals.org, said his organization has been trying to obtain sponsorships to keep the installation active and find it a permanent location here.
“Both of the above objectives have unfortunately not been realized so far, even though we have received plenty of interest from other U.S. cities to join the Portals artwork. We feel the Portal has been tremendously well received by the people of Philadelphia and we would love to keep it there, but one way or another it will move soon, Klaus said in an email.
He said his organization wants to “secure a location in Philadelphia for the Portal’s permanent display, which is the artistic intent of Portals — they are meant as permanent landmarks at notable locations on Earth.”
A spokesperson for the city could not be reached for comment Friday.
Late Friday morning, Steve Ross posted a photo on Reddit of the front of the Portal with damage to its glass screen from three apparent impacts and asked: “Did somebody shoot the portal?”
The Portal has been covered since early February, when thieves cut a section of copper wire from the art installation.
“The [glass] damage was originally reported in January of this year. Since the initial vandalism and theft of copper, the portal had been covered. However, due to the recent high winds, the cover was blown off, making the damage visible once again,” said Officer Tanya Little, a Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson.
The cover has since been replaced by police, Little said.
Klaus said the “front layer of the screen is covered with laminated glass, which has absorbed the impact. The glass is a custom made component that takes some time to source, but we will have it repaired soon.”
Klaus acknowledged that repairs to the Portal have been delayed because of funding issues.
When it was turned on, the art installation connected people in other countries with Philadelphia via livestream. The Portal debuted in October at LOVE Park with live images from Dublin, Ireland; Vilnius, Lithuania; and Lublin, Poland.
Before arriving at LOVE Park, the Portal previously was hosted at the Flatiron Plaza in New York City. Before it was turned on here, people noticed a crack in the display, fueling online speculation that it was vandalized by someone in Philadelphia. But a Portals spokesperson said at the time that the crack occurred during its transit from New York.
The Portals project was created by Lithuanian artist Benediktas Gylys, and the inaugural installation was set up in 2021, connecting Lithuania, to Poland.