On 10 December 2025, in the presence of the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, BENU, the site-specific artwork created by artist Eugenio Tibaldi inside the Rebibbia ‘Germana Stefanini’ Women’s prison, the largest women’s detention facility in Europe.
The project, promoted by Fondazione Severino and Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, curated by Marcello Smarrelli, follows in the footsteps of the numerous initiatives promoted by the two foundations to bring contemporary art into correctional institutions and was carried out in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo, under the patronage of the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See and the Italian Ministry of Justice
BENU takes its name from a mythological creature, a brightly colored bird sacred to the ancient Egyptians and consecrated to the god Ra, a symbol of birth and regeneration. It was later assimilated into the phoenix and adopted by Christians as an emblem of rebirth and resurrection.
In Tibaldi’s interpretation, this mythological figure is transformed into a message of hope and renewal, dedicated to incarcerated women and encouraging them to overcome both the physical and symbolic boundaries of confinement.
The artwork, created as part of the initiatives for the 2025 Jubilee, is the result of a long and articulated participatory creative process that began in September 2024 with the artist’s first visits to the prison, preparatory meetings with staff, and the conceptual definition of the project. In the following months, Tibaldi conducted creative workshops with the inmates, who were invited to narrate their stories through drawings accompanied by written texts, symbolically representing their strengths and weaknesses in the image of the phoenix. In this process, drawing was understood as a universal language for the representation of emotions, capable of overcoming linguistic and social barriers.
Drawing inspiration from the desires and needs that emerged through dialogue with the women of the prison, Tibaldi conceived BENU, a permanent site-specific artwork that represents the culmination of this long journey of collaboration and shared growth.
The images created during the workshops were collected by the artist and synthesized into two imaginary phoenixes that together form a collective self-portrait of the participants: new deities and new myths with which the inmates were able to identify, becoming stronger and more motivated to embark on a path of hope and rebirth.
The two images were reproduced as light boxes (mounted on poles over eight meters high), installed within the prison perimeter and strategically positioned so that they are visible from the windows of the inmates’ sleeping quarters, from staff offices, and from outside the prison.
To be illuminated at night, these images require the active participation of the incarcerated women. In response to the request to equip the facility with gym equipment, the artist proposed installing stationary bicycles connected to electric generators. Through the physical effort of each person using these machines, energy is produced and stored; every night, at a set time, this energy lights up the images, linking their visibility to daily experience and to the will and commitment of the women themselves.
Visible from outside as well, the two luminous sculptures send a tangible signal of life, creating an ideal bridge with the residents of the neighborhood and with those who frequent the areas surrounding the institution.
The project was realized in partnership with the Rebibbia “Germana Stefanini” Women’s Prison and with the collaboration of ARTELIA Italia S.p.A., which was responsible for project management, electrical systems design, and supervision of the execution of the works. CARIOCA provided all the materials for the workshops from paper to pencils, from colors to markers). APA – Agenzia Pubblicità Affissioni supports the project by making its network of print and digital (LED) installations available, which are disseminate images of BENU throughout the city of Rome.
