A ‘SURREALIST’ monument has been ‘stopping people in their tracks’ on Bournemouth beach.

The striking 15m high PORTAL art installation was erected on Thursday, September 28 close to Bournemouth pier, as a part of the Arts by the Sea Festival.

The team behind the installation, Lucid Creates, said it was ‘inspired by ancient monuments’.

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“We wanted to create a place where communities come together, people have shared experiences. Monuments throughout history have been those places to do that, Stonehenge and places like that,” Lucid Creates director Chris Carr said.

“We wanted to do a modern take on it.

“We’ve got this surrealist, dream-like structure that sits within the landscape, appears, disappears and creates this unique moment for people.”

Bournemouth Echo: Director of Lucid Creates, Chris Carr.

Chris said the studio approached the Arts by the Sea Festival with the idea and the proposal, with the beach in mind.

“The beach is a unique place to do it. We wanted it to make sure that it was going to unique places, these unusual, unexpected places that people wouldn’t expect to see this kind of structure in,” he said.

“There are challenges with a beach to do it, to build a structure like this on but we’ve overcome all of those things and we’ve got this great structure in a super unique location.

“We were super keen to bring it to Bournemouth, because of the uniqueness. There are not many places that have a beach that you could do this on.

“The design has been within that setting throughout the design process. It’s a perfect location for it.”

Bournemouth Echo: PORTAL on Bournemouth beach in front of the pier.

Ella Willis Nasser, project director, said they were ‘really pleased’ to be involved in the festival.

“It’s such an ambitious thing to bring to somewhere, the challenges that we have of building somewhere like this, somewhere so specific,” she said.

“We really appreciate the ambitiousness of the organisers as well to bring something of this scale here. It doesn’t happen often.”

Chris added: “This is the second time that we’ve brought something to Arts by the Sea as well, so it’s good to see that progression and bring something bigger than we did before.

“Anywhere that’s got the ambition to do things like this, for us as artists, it’s brilliant, those are the places we want to be working.”

Bournemouth Echo: PORTAL on Bournemouth beach

Ella said the studio had never seen so many people stop to take pictures of one of their installations.

“It stops people in their tracks,” she said.

“We’ll see people who aren’t interested, and they’ll stop here and take pictures which is really nice to see. It does stop people and makes them take in that moment, which is the whole point of the piece and the event.”

Chris said PORTAL will be touring worldwide after its Bournemouth premiere, but that he can’t say exactly where it will be going next.

He added: “Keep doing good things in Bournemouth, keep the arts coming, it’s great.”