Philadelphia Artist Collaborative Die-Cast Awarded $20,000 Juried Prize At No Vacancy, Miami Beach

The City of Miami Beach, in collaboration with the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority (MBVCA) is pleased to announce that the No Vacancy Juried Prize has been awarded to Die-Cast for the artist collaborative's work titled Temporary Occupancy. The work was selected from the 10 participating artists and collectives by a jury of Miami Beach art experts including Silvia Karman Cubiña, Director and Chief Curator of The Bass Museum of Art; Dennis Scholl, Executive Director of Oolite Arts and Maria Elena Ortiz, Associate Curator at the Perez Art Museum Miami.

To celebrate the Miami Public Works version of the piece, Die-Cast will be re-releasing the digital Philadelphia version of Temporary Occupancy as a pay-what-you-like experience. The re-release will include new scenes created and filmed for Art Week in Miami.

The immersive digital project will be available from December 10 through December 20 and can be viewed at any time at www.die-castphilly.org

"With impressive technological qualities, Temporary Occupancy is an ambitious and poignant project, embodying the artistic spirit of Miami Beach", says Ortiz.

Installed at the Betsy Hotel, Temporary Occupancy is a digital-live hybrid installation that opens the privacy of the hotel room for public display. With both in-person and digital aspects of the project, Temporary Occupancy offers a larger world for visitors to explore.

The work imagines a fictional company called Vicurious, which offers potential visitors short stays in virtual hotel rooms, vicariously experiencing another person's life. The boutique hospitality company is looking to open a new office in Miami. Through projected videos, in-person physical performances, and a fully-immersive digital component, Die-Cast's newest creation asks visitors to explore how they center themselves in the experiences of others.

"Die-Cast's process begins with a space as the foundation of our work. We look to fill that space with our art and have our art in turn shaped by the space", explains Brenna Geffers, who comprises one half of the collaborative along with artist Thom Weaver. "Our work ends up being love letters to these special spaces that are often inaccessible to visitors and this is definitely a love letter to the Betsy Hotel. In many ways, this piece required us to use tools we have never used before, like streaming multiple camera phones. In other ways however, the piece feels very much like our work; it is communal, intimate, and of the moment from which it was born. We want to sincerely thank the City of Miami Beach for this recognition."

No Vacancy is a juried art competition that celebrates artists, provokes critical discourse, and invites the public to experience Miami Beach's famed hotels as destination art spaces. Artists were drawn from a call for submissions issued by the city in February 2020 and selected by representatives from the City of Miami Beach Art in Public Places Committee (AiPP), Cultural Arts Council and MBVCA.

For the inaugural edition of No Vacancy, $25,000 in prizes will be awarded. In addition to the $20,000 juried prize there will be a $5,000 prize by the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) determined by public vote. The winner of the Public Prize will be announced on December 12, 2020.

For additional information and to vote on the Public Prize please visit: www.mbartsandculture.org/no-vacancy

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