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Opinion: A tale of two cities' 'Portal' pandemonium An art installation called
The Portal was shut down this week in New York and Dublin because of rude
gestures and other bad public behavior, as NPR's Scott Simon explains.
Special Series


SIMON SAYS

NPR's Scott Simon Shares His Take On Events Large And Small

OPINION





OPINION: A TALE OF TWO CITIES' 'PORTAL' PANDEMONIUM

May 18, 20248:02 AM ET
Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday

Scott Simon

OPINION: A TALE OF TWO CITIES' 'PORTAL' PANDEMONIUM

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People in both New York and Dublin, Ireland, wave and signal at each other while
looking at a livestream view of one another as part of an art installation on
the street in New York on Tuesday. Seth Wenig/AP hide caption

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Seth Wenig/AP


People in both New York and Dublin, Ireland, wave and signal at each other while
looking at a livestream view of one another as part of an art installation on
the street in New York on Tuesday.

Seth Wenig/AP

The New York-Dublin Portal was shut almost as soon as it opened.

The Portal is a live circular video screen by Lithuanian creator Benediktas
Gylys by which people in two different cities can, in the words of exhibit
organizers, "embrace the beauty of global interconnectedness."

But, "global interconnectedness" can be messy.

Portals were set up earlier this month near the Flatiron Building in Midtown
Manhattan, and O'Connell Street in Dublin. Those who crowded into view to smile,
wave, snap selfies, and make heart signs or faces between the two cities were
overwhelmingly courteous.

But New York and Dublin are not Mayberry.



CNN saw a man in front of New York's Portal flash two middle fingers. Social
media sites show a few people on the Dublin side hold up swastikas and images of
the destruction of the twin towers on 9/11, which were especially horrifying.
Ava Louise, who has an OnlyFans site, responded by lifting her shirt in front of
New York's Portal as "revenge," she told the Daily Star.

There are other Portals in Lublin, Poland, and Vilnius, Lithuania. I find no
record of similarly demonstrative citizens there. But New York and Dublin are
celebrated world centers of edginess.


NATIONAL


INTERACTIVE ART INSTALLATION LETS STRANGERS TALK TO EACH OTHER ACROSS THE BORDER

New York has been home to Philip Roth, Lenny Bruce, the New York Dolls, James
Baldwin, Charlotte Moorman, the Topless Cellist, and many artists whose words
and works have sometimes been disdained and even banned.

And Dublin? Home to Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, William Butler Yeats, and the
Boomtown Rats. Dubliner Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels depicts a giant who
quenches a fire by relieving himself on it. There's a scene for The Portal!

James Joyce's Ulysses, about a day in Dublin, couldn't be published at first for
its frank depictions of other facts of life. Dubliner Sinead O' Connor notably
shredded a photo of Pope John Paul II on live TV in America in 1992, and
declared. "Fight the real enemy."



Perhaps the civic and business groups who support the installation might seem a
little naïve to invite Dubliners and New Yorkers to "embrace the beauty of
global interconnectedness" and not expect some invective, profanity, and
outright slurs to seep through The Portal.

The technical team says they're working on what they call "additional solutions
to limit such behavior appearing on the livestream," and that the installation
will reopen this weekend.

The Portal does not include audio. As someone on the New York Portal side might
put it, "Fuggetaboutit!"

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