By Camilla Sarra. Cover La Gorda by LABEN.
Why Florence Looks Different From the Arno Riverbank
You may have looked at Florence from every angle: its bridges, terraces, crowded squares, and most photographed viewpoints. You may have seen it from above, from the side, inside museums, through phone screens. Yet there is one place where the city completely changes: the banks of the Arno River. Going down beneath the Uffizi Gallery means entering a Florence that feels closer to the water. The historic centre stays above, with its noise and familiar routes. Here, the city lowers its voice. It becomes more physical, more intimate, shaped by stone, river light, and less obvious passages.
This is where the Società Canottieri Firenze lives: a historic rowing club overlooking the river, right in the heart of Florence, seen from a different perspective: at water level, under the Uffizi.
Società Canottieri Firenze: River History Since 1886
The story of the Canottieri begins in 1886, when the first Florentine rowing society was founded under the name “Firenze”. On 12 May 1887, during the celebrations for the façade of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Arno also hosted rowing races. The city celebrated by turning toward its river. The Società Canottieri Firenze was officially founded on 6 February 1911, inheriting the legacy of the Libertas and Florentia societies. It adopted the city’s heraldic colours, white and red, which also became the colours of its rowing uniform. In 1913, the club won its first Italian titles. Since 1933, the club has been based beneath the Uffizi, in one of Florence’s most iconic riverfront locations, with Ponte Vecchio and the water always in view.
A River Club Shaped by Sport, Floods and Reinvention
The Circolo Canottieri Firenze carries a layered history of sport and city life. During the Second World War, boats returned to the river even among the ruins around Ponte Vecchio. In 1966, the devastating flood submerged the headquarters for more than twenty-four hours. Almost only the perimeter walls remained. Members cleared the mud, salvaged what they could, and started again. Today, the Società Canottieri Firenze 1886 holds the Stella d’Oro and the Collare d’Oro of CONI for sporting merit. Its facilities include two gyms, an indoor rowing tank, twenty rowing machines, and more than sixty boats, with Ponte Vecchio and the Uffizi as an everyday backdrop. It is a place connected to sporting discipline, youth training and the social life of Florence. This is also why the arrival of urban art here creates such a strong effect: it brings a contemporary language into a space full of memory.
L’Arno in Voga: When Contemporary Art Enters the Sala Fontana
With L’Arno in Voga, the cultural programme curated by Veronica Triolo and dedicated to club members, the Canottieri opens its spaces to new visual languages. In its fifth edition, the Sala Fontana hosts one of Tuscany’s most recognisable street artists: LABEN, bringing his iconic character La Gorda. The setting is already charged with meaning: a historic space under the Uffizi, the riverbank, and a pop figure born from street culture. The result is a direct encounter between Florence’s memory and contemporary visual language. For this edition, the work becomes the largest mural ever created by the artist (190 cm tall), and the first monographic exhibition entirely dedicated to this character, who is, in many ways, his muse.
Who is LABEN: Street Art, Identity and Outsiders
LABEN, born in Arezzo in 1980, is a former musician and a master of stencil art. His work is based on multi-layered stencils and often portrays figures that move against the current, closely linked to social issues and identities outside conventional standards. His background in music can be felt in the rhythm of his images. The composition always has a clear movement. His figures appear immediate, with strong colours and sharp lines, although behind them there is a precise construction made of layers, cuts and overlays. The Arezzo-born artist looks above all at those who remain outside dominant models. His works include the excluded, the nonconformists, the disobedient and the outsiders. His visual world is direct, colourful and accessible, yet it often touches on uncomfortable subjects.
As LABEN explains: “The themes I prefer to address are civil and social issues: from gender diversity to youth loneliness caused by the excessive use of social media; from the fight against racism and homophobia to body shaming. The subjects I favour and portray are the excluded, the nonconformists, the disobedient, the outsiders, individuals with eccentric personalities, and all those who do not fit within the standardised canon of beauty. It was precisely around this last theme that I had my Boterian vision, reinterpreted through street art, which took the form of La Gorda. The name ‘La Gorda’, contrary to what one might think, is a tribute to all those people with a beauty and a body outside the standard. With her gaze, proud of what she is and how she appears, she is self-confident and does not fear other people’s judgement. La Gorda is my muse and my artistic continuity”.
La Gorda: A Pop Icon Outside the Canon of Beauty
At the centre of the exhibition is LABEN’s signature character. In the image, she appears in a sailor-style swimsuit, with a lifebuoy on her shoulders, red lipstick and a proud gaze. She looks as though she has arrived on the Arno to take the stage. Her strength lies in her presence. This larger-than-life figure occupies space naturally. Her body is visible, her gaze is confident, her image overturns judgement. At a time when the body is often corrected, filtered and measured, she carries a clear message: beauty can exist outside expected formats.
Why La Gorda Under the Uffizi Changes Florence’s Perspective
Seeing this figure at the Circolo Canottieri Firenze creates a powerful visual short circuit. On one side, there is a historic place connected to sport and the memory of the river. On the other, a character born from an urban and direct imagination. This is the real point: bringing LABEN’s muse under the Uffizi changes the way we look at Florence. The city becomes less predictable. The river becomes a stage. A historic club opens itself to a young and accessible language.
Florence Seen From the River: A New Way to Look at the City
This exhibition speaks about urban art, the body and identity. It also speaks about Florence, seen from a different perspective. The riverbank becomes the place from which to discover a less obvious city, still able to surprise. All it takes is going down a few metres, leaving the bridges above your head and reaching the space beneath the Uffizi. Here, among boats and sporting memory, this pop presence brings colour, irony and a very simple kind of freedom: the freedom to exist in the world with your own body, without asking for permission.
