NYC-Dublin Portal is going away Sept. 2 — but not for long, creator says

“Portal,” a viral art installation that provides a real-time video link between 23rd Street in Manhattan and Dublin, Ireland, will leave its location near Madison Square Park on Sept. 2. But its creator Benediktas Gylys says he expects to bring it to a new, more permanent home this fall.

The new location is not yet secured, though it’s “95%” of the way there, Gylys said in a Zoom interview from his home in Vilnius, Lithuania. And viewers in New York City will see more of the world than just Dublin when the installation returns, he said.

“We have a couple of candidates that are very interested, but we are still not 100% sure about the location,” said Gylys. “What we know is that the portal will remain open and there’s no possibility of closing the portal.”

The Manhattan and Dublin portals are just two of four stationed around the world, with others in Lublin, Poland, and Vilnius. The NYC-Dublin portal connection closed briefly twice this year after the Dublin City Council said in a statement that “inappropriate behaviour” was observed on both sides of the Atlantic.

After Dubliners displayed images of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the camera and an OnlyFans model bared her breasts to the Manhattan portal, the project's sponsors — including the Flatiron NoMad Business District — instituted new security measures and limited the portal to daytime hours in an attempt to avoid untoward antics.

The local portal’s new location will remain outdoors, accessible to all and free of charge, Gylys said. Rather than providing an exclusive link between New York and Dublin, it and the other portals will rotate video feeds among all of their locations.

Gylys declined to share details on the cost of running the portals, but said the New York-based Simons Foundation — created in 1994 by hedge fund pioneer Jim Simons, who died in May — covered the cost of building them.

Gylys’ own nonprofit foundation and local partners in each host city provide the funding to keep the portals running. He said he was optimistic that funding would persist.

“No force can stop an idea whose time has come, and it’s time for portals,” he noted. “If it’s not me, there will be someone else who will continue building this bridge to a united planet.”

Gylys — an angel investor, artist, and dietary supplement and vitamin entrepreneur — said he first conceived of the portals in 2016, after his financial success led to a feeling of emptiness and lack of purpose.

“Something inside of me really wanted to express the message of unity, that we are all interconnected beings flying on this tiny spaceship and the only way forward is together,” he said. “It was impossible to continue living my life without creating something to express this.”