Maggie Sgaramella ’26
If you found yourself strolling in Center City Philadelphia from October 22nd to November 7th, you may have noticed a 3.5-ton, 8-foot tall screen sitting in the middle of Love Park. You could have even shared a wave and a smile from an Irish lad, 3,257 miles away. On November 3rd, 2024, I did just that.
The Philly Portal connected to three different cities in Europe and rotated between them about every three minutes. Philadelphians could see people in Lublin, Poland, Vilnius, Lithuania, and Dublin, Ireland. The portal was originally an art installation by Lithuanian entrepreneur Benediktas Gylys in New York, and it has now been in six cities including Philadelphia. The portal, which was live 24/7, drew a sizable crowd of onlookers and online enthusiasts.
While I was visiting the Portal, I approached some enthusiastic portal spectators to inquire about what they think the portal does for the city. One woman that I met had prepared 3 large yellow signs to hold up at the portal. Each sign shared a positive message in the native language of each country that is displayed on the other side of the webcam. “We all have so many things in common,” she remarked, before turning away to showcase her sign to the Polish city street that had appeared on the large screen. Her sign translated to “wishes of love and peace around the world,” promoting the notion that humans are connected by positive affirmations and actions.
The existence of wholesome interactions like those signs was very common, with people waving and sharing messages with people on the other side of the portal. Philadelphia resident Ayman Samuel ’27 did not have a chance to see the portal, but when asked about his thoughts on its presence in his home city, stated, “I find the Philadelphia Portal fascinating because it provides insights into the daily lives and cultures of citizens in countries like Lithuania, Poland, and Ireland. I thought the portal’s location being in Love Park was a sweet minor detail as the portal encourages people to spread love and positivity to the rest of the world.” Lauren Wagner, Technical Services Library Assistant, has visited the portal, and noted, “It seems to connect people from different areas and it brings awareness to other parts of the world that you may never get to see in person.”
Photo courtesy of CBS News
With the introduction of the Portal, the City of Brotherly Love is extending its love worldwide, in addition to displaying an international symbol of unity. According to the project’s website, Portals.org, their mission is to further interconnectivity in a divided world, stating, “We have more to share than what separates us.” The organizers of the portal believe that this project “marked the beginning of a global movement in both the virtual and physical worlds.” The Portal’s founder said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp, covered by the Smithsonian, that it is his “life’s mission, my dream—to build more sculptures in all countries around the world so that we could all meet as humankind together and recognize that we are all inseparably connected.” Though the world is vastly diverse, humans have more in common than we believe, a notion the sculptural portals aim to project.
The Portal’s location in Love Park also showcases some of the best of Philadelphia to the cities on the other side. When asked about the Portal’s impact on the city, another woman I met at the Portal said she thinks that it “encourages people to come out and open their horizons and see people in other countries, and show them just how hospitable we are.”