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Giant Portal Near Flatiron Building Connects People From New York City and Dublin

By Sarah Currier on April 1, 2024

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When you hear the word “portal,” images of fantasy or science-fiction books probably come to mind. And while portals may not be naturally occurring in our world, technology has provided us with the opportunity to create things that used to only exist in the pages of storybooks.

Portal is one of these creations. Aptly named, it is a new public installation that will be located at the Flatiron South Public Plaza at Broadway, Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street this spring. It will broadcast live video from Dublin, Ireland, into New York City. At the same time, another portal will be set up in Dublin that will live stream footage from New York City, connecting the viewers at both locations.

Benediktas Gylys, a Lithuanian artist and entrepreneur, is the mastermind behind the portals. He is passionate about creating projects that connect humanity and advertise our similarities at a time when we are increasingly divided. According to Portal‘s website, “Portals are an invitation to meet fellow humans above borders and prejudices and to experience our home—planet Earth—as it really is: united and one.”

This set of portals is far from the first one that the organization has worked on. Currently, they have a pair located in Vilnius, Lithuania, and Lublin, Poland, that were set up in 2021 as an homage to Gylys' home country. Their website also houses a form where you can write about why your city should have a portal installed in it.

For more on the Portal project, check out its website and Instagram.