LTC 061-2024 Elevate Espanola - Heliotropic Seekers by Beatriz ChachamovitsMIAMI BEACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
LTC# 061-2024
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
SUBJECT:
LETTER TO COMMISSION
Honorable Mayor Steven Meiner and Members of the City Commission
Alina T. Hudak, City Mana� �
February 20, 2024 lf' • -
Elevate Espanola -Heliotropic Seekers by Beatriz Chachamovits
The purpose of this L TC is to provide an update regarding the next Elevate Espanola temporary public
art commission opening reception.
Elevate Espanola is a dedicated art presentation site that commissions installations suspended above
the historic Espanola Way corridor, providing pedestrian connectivity between Espanola Way and
Ocean Drive. Featuring two projects annually, Elevate Espanola plays an important role in bringing
contemporary art to one of the most publicly visible areas of Miami Beach.
For its Spring 2024 installation, the City of Miami Beach is pleased to present Heliotropic Seekers, a
newly commissioned art installation by Brazilian artist Beatriz Chachamovits. The artist will be
collaborating with students from Miami Beach Senior High School for the mural component of this
project.
Heliotropic Seekers is the fourth installment of Elevate Espanola as a dedicated art installation and the
fifth to be presented over Espanola Way. In 2021, the art collective FriendsWithYou presented a
hanging installation over Espanola Way, which was called Little Cloud Sky, consisting of eight inflatable
cloud sculptures. In November 2022, Edouard Duval-Carrie debuted the inaugural installation for
Elevate Espanola titled Trapeze Contortionists. In Spring 2023, artist Jillian Mayer presented Very
Moving, which explored the impact of technology on our lives and artist collective assume vivid astro
focus presented a drag-inspired installation called Adora Vanessa Athena Fantasia during Art Week
Miami Beach 2023.
Please join us for the opening reception, which will be held on Wednesday, March 6 at 5:30pm on
Espanola Way between Washington and Collins Avenues.
Heliotropic Seekers will feature five brightly colored hanging plexiglass cutouts of various endangered
species of fish and coral native to South Florida shores, including grouper, angel, grunt, blue tang and
parrot fish joined by coral species such as elkhorn, pillar, staghorn, star, starlet and brain coral. By
engaging with the natural world, viewers will be prompted to consider how their behavior may affect
coral reefs and inspire action to care for the world's oceans.
Art in Public Places Committee has recommended future commissions to include site specific
commission by Jen Stark opening in December 2024.
A b o u t th e A rt is t
Beatriz Chachamovits is an environmental artist and educator from Sao Paulo, Brazil living and working
in Miami, Florida. Her work renders tangible the decline of the coral reef ecosystems, and the role
played by humans in it. Her intention is to share the majestic beauty of at-risk marine ecologies as well
as the appalling rate of their destruction. Selected solo shows includes "White Sea" at Galeria Tato in
Sao Paulo, Brazil (2017), "Into the Great Dying: Waters We Share" at Faena Art Project Room (2022)
"Our Changing Seas" at the Frost Science Museum (2022). Selected group shows include: National
Museum of Rio de Janeiro, "Coral Expedition: 1865 - 2018 (2018) The Phillip and Patricia Frost
Science Museum "Transitional Nature" (2020), and the Art and Cultural Center of Hollywood "C[h ]oral
Stories and Collective Actions" (2022).
ELEVA TE ESPA N O LA
Beatriz Chachamovits, Heliotropic Seekers
OPENING
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6 AT 5:30PM
Espaola Way and Washington Avenue
_CI_TY_O_F_M_IA_M_I _BE_A_C_H MIAMI BEACH
TEMPORARY PUBLIC ART INSTALLATIONS
For more information, please contact Lissette Garcia Arrogante,
I issettearrogante@mia mi beachfl. gov.
-%es
Director of Tourism and Culture at