Promoted by the Severino Foundation and the Pastificio Cerere Foundation, in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo, the project is part of the Jubilee 2025 program and is based on a long series of artistic workshops conducted with the women incarcerated at the facility. The result is two luminous phoenixes over eight meters tall, visible even from outside the prison and powered daily by the energy produced by the women themselves through stationary bicycles connected to an electric storage system.

BENU takes its name from an Egyptian mythological creature linked to the legend of the phoenix, a symbol of rebirth and regeneration: values the artwork seeks to evoke within a context of profound fragility, such as that of female detention. The two sculptures represent a collective self-portrait of the workshop participants, who, through drawing and storytelling, have conveyed their emotions, desires, and lived experiences.

The inauguration took place in the prison theater in the presence of the participating inmates, representatives of the institutions, and the project partners.

BENU is the first permanent public artwork in Italy visible from a penitentiary institution and aims to shine a light – both real and symbolic – on the value of culture in processes of reintegration and transformation.

Under the patronage of the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See and the Italian Ministry of Justice. With the collaboration of Artelia Italia, APA Affisioni, and technical sponsor Carioca.