Florence Biennale XV: How a Lincoln Road Duck Won Fourth Prize in Installation Art

The piece that traveled to Florence was not built to win a prize. It was built to ask a question. What can a rubber duck carry?

In 2025, FLY Miami Art was invited to exhibit at the Florence Biennale XV inside the Fortezza da Basso. The installation, titled Resilience, used hundreds of hand sculpted rubber ducks arranged into shapes that read as both portraits and protests. After two weeks on display in front of an international audience, the international jury awarded the work Fourth Prize in Installation Art.

The story behind Resilience

Resilience began in the Miami Beach studio months before Florence. Facundo Yebne, the artist behind FLY Miami Art, wanted to translate the visual language of the UnityBeak series, his permanent public installation on Lincoln Road, into a single body of work that could travel.

Each duck in the piece was made by hand. Some carry messages of peace, some of love, some of unity. None are mass produced. Together, they ask the viewer to look twice at a familiar object and consider what it might mean.

What the Biennale jury looks for

The Florence Biennale jury awards work across painting, sculpture, photography, video, and installation. Installation Art is the category where physical scale, material innovation, and concept have to land at the same time. Resilience won fourth in that category.

The recognition placed FLY Miami Art alongside artists from across Europe, the Americas, and Asia, and confirmed that the rubber duck, as a sculptural form, has more to say than a beach toy implies.

Why Lincoln Road and Florence belong in the same sentence

The same hand that built UnityBeak on Lincoln Road built Resilience for Florence. The two cities sit on opposite sides of the Atlantic, but the work treats them as a single conversation. A duck on Lincoln Road in front of a hotel and a duck in Florence in front of a Renaissance fortress are doing the same job, asking strangers to slow down and read.

What happens to the work next

The installation has now returned to Miami and feeds back into the studio. New pieces in the FLY Miami Art catalog carry the marks of what was learned in Florence: a quieter palette in places, a sharper edge in others, a willingness to scale up and down on demand.

Collectors who want a piece of the body of work that traveled to Florence can browse the originals in the shop, or commission a piece tuned to a specific space.

Visit in person

UnityBeak and Proud Love remain on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach and are free to view at any hour. The studio at 5445 Collins Ave welcomes visitors by appointment.

Peace. Love. Joy. Unity.