Portal in LOVE Park is closed for maintenance, but will return in early March
Philadelphia's version of the video art installation has been down for several days, but St. Patrick's Day events are planned after it returns.
Center City denizens pining for a glimpse at the Portal installation in LOVE Park don’t have too long to wait until it reopens.
The Portal, a video art installation that connects people in other countries with folks in Philly via livestream, has been down in recent days. The attraction, however, is slated to return sometime in early March, Portals Organization director Joseph Callahan said in a statement.
“We’re thrilled to be able to continue bringing people together across the globe through the Portal,” he said. Callahan added that a number of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations are planned in conjunction with the attraction’s coming return. One the cities connecting with Philadelphia is Dublin, Ireland.
Philly’s Portal is offline for routine maintenance and upgrades. It came to Philadelphia in late October, when it went live with a crack in its screen that had appeared during its travel to the city from New York, The Inquirer previously reported.
The Portal was shut down and wrapped in a blue tarp ahead of the Super Bowl earlier this month. With the screen covered, the countries to which the Portal connects Philly were unable to see how we celebrated the Eagles’ 40-22 trouncing of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Created by Lithuanian artist Benediktas Gylys, the Portal project launched in 2021, and has connecting screens to Philadelphia in Dublin; Vilnius, Lithuania; and Lublin, Poland. At the opening of the Philly Portal in October, Gylys said it was “an honor” to have his project “just meters away from where the American Declaration of Independence was signed almost 250 years ago.”
“We hope a Portal will find a permanent home in the birthplace of America,” he said.