The international project Porte della Speranza (Doors of Hope), promoted by the Pontifical Foundation Gravissimum Educationis of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, and implemented by the Jubilee Culture Education Committee together with Rampello & Partners, was presented at the Holy See Press Office. The initiative was born as a symbolic extension of a gesture made at the beginning of the Jubilee: the opening of the Holy Door in Rome’s Rebibbia prison, an event that inspired deep reflection on the theme of hope and the possibility of transforming detention into a path of rebirth and dialogue. From that image takes shape an artistic and social program of international scope that aims to enhance the educational role of art in difficult contexts, involving prisoners, artists, institutions and local communities.
Over the course of a year, ten Art Doors will be created and placed in front of as many penitentiary institutions, where they will remain visible to all. In the first phase, eight installations will be made in Italy and two in Portugal, with the aim of gradually extending the project to other countries. The Doors aim to translate into visual language the message of openness and reconciliation launched by Pope Francis and relaunched by Pope Leo XIV since the beginning of his pontificate, including through the Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi Te, which will be presented tomorrow.
“The Church feels as its mission the responsibility to go out to meet people in situations of detention to announce to them the Gospel of hope,” explained Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, President of the Pontifical Foundation Gravissimum Educationis and Prefect of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Culture and Education. “We cannot forget either the prison population or the institutional reality that the prison represents. On the contrary, we want to contribute to awaken the consciousness of our common responsibility as custodians of hope. When we look at each other as brothers, the common weaving of hope takes place.”
In Italy, the creation of the eight Doors has been entrusted to a group of prominent artists and creatives, chosen for their ability to establish a dialogue with the places and people involved. At San Vittore in Milan, architect Michele De Lucchi will speak; at the women’s section of Borgo San Nicola in Lecce, Fabio Novembre will be present; at Regina Coeli in Rome, Gianni Dessì will work ; in Venice, at Santa Maria Maggiore, Mario Martone will be engaged; at Pagliarelli in Palermo, the project is entrusted to chef Massimo Bottura; at Canton Mombello in Brescia, Stefano Boeri will participate; at the Secondigliano prison in Naples, Mimmo Paladino will speak; and finally, in Reggio Calabria - at an institute that is being defined - Ersilia Vaudo Scarpetta will be involved.
The artists, in agreement with prison management and with the support of art curator Davide Rampello, will enter the institutions to establish a direct dialogue with inmates and staff, so as to be inspired by the experiences and stories collected. The works will be conceived as a synthesis of this confrontation, transforming the reflection on prison into a shared artistic language. The realization of the Doors will take place between the end of 2025 and the first half of 2026, with the aim of offering a double possibility of passage: for the inmates, a path to society through the path of rehabilitation and education that the project intends to support; for society, a gateway to the prison world, to overcome prejudices and build a common ground of knowledge and respect.
“We hope,” says Monsignor Davide Milani, Secretary General of the Gravissimum Educationis Foundation, “for an authentic encounter between the cities that will host the Doors and the prison communities; between the prejudices thrown at prisoners and the reality of the women and men who live their sentences. The Doors of Hope aims to be a chance for the public to ”enter“ the reality of prison by understanding its necessary rehabilitative and human function, so that it is increasingly central to the concerns of politics and civil society.”
The project is supported by the Department of Prison Administration of the Ministry of Justice, headed by President Stefano Carmine De Michele, who says, “The Doors of Hope is much more than an artistic initiative. Is a path. A journey that symbolically crosses the walls of the prison, opening them to the light of dialogue, listening, beauty and, above all, human dignity. This project was born in full coherence with the purposes of prison treatment, which in our constitution is not exhausted in the execution of the sentence, but aims at the social reintegration of the detained person through a path of re-education and growth.”
The international dimension of the project is realized in Portugal, where two artist residencies have already been realized thanks to the collaboration with the Ministry of Justice of the Portuguese Republic - General Directorate for Reintegration and Penitentiary Services - with the support of ZET Gallery and Fundação Jornada. At theLeiria School Penitentiary Institute, which houses a juvenile prison population, artist Ilídio Candja created the first Door, while at theTires Penitentiary Institute, reserved for incarcerated mothers with children, Fernanda Fragateiro worked. In her speech, Portuguese Justice Minister Rita Júdice recalled that “the doors of justice must always remain open to new opportunities,” emphasizing how art can “nurture in inmates the desire for justice and generate a genuine feeling of freedom.”
Material-wise, the works will be made of metal, stone, and wood, elements chosen for their symbolic value: sacrifice, faith, and the possibility of regeneration. The production process will be supported by important technical partners and artisans who will collaborate with the authors. These include KME Italy for copper, Riva1920 for wood, Margraf for marble processing, Bianco Cave for the extraction and transformation of pietra leccese, engineer Maurizio Milan with Buromilan for technical aspects and certifications, and Studio FM Milano with Sergio Menichelli for the creation of the official emblem of the Doors of Hope, presented during the press conference.
Curator Davide Rampello explained that the intent of the project is “to entrust the sensibility of artists and performers with the task of making the power of hope visible, transforming it into living matter, a shared gesture and concrete beauty.” The educational and social perspective constitutes one of the pillars of the initiative, which aims not only at the personal and cultural growth of the inmates but also to offer concrete opportunities for job reintegration. In collaboration with institutions of excellence such as theAcademy of Fine Arts of Brera and ALMA - The International School of Italian Cuisine, training courses and workshops will be activated that will enable inmates to acquire technical and creative skills that can be spent once their sentence is over.
The Doors of Hope Project is implemented with the contribution of Fondazione Cariplo. President Giovanni Azzone explains, “We are very close to the needs of people living in prison. By promoting paths of inclusion for these people, starting with cultural initiatives but also job training, we can consider their reintegration into society as concrete. Therefore, we immediately accepted the project because it is functional to the goals of a philanthropic foundation like ours, whose function is to use the accumulated resources of communities to make them stronger.”
Each phase of the project, from the meetings in the penitentiaries to the design and construction of the works, will be documented in a film directed by Giuseppe Carrieri and in a collective publication, a book-catalogue that will collect artistic testimonies, critical texts and contributions from the inmates and personalities involved. The goal is to build a choral narrative of hope as a force for transformation and as a tool for participation.
Through its complexity and multiple dimensions, Doors of Hope is thus proposed not only as an art project but as a community experience. The installations, the result of shared work, will become symbols of rebirth, dialogue and openness between the world of detention and civil society, inviting those who pass through them to reflect on the possibility of a new beginning.
The Doors of Hope will not just be monuments to be observed, but real thresholds to be crossed, capable of restoring visibility to those living on the margins and strengthening the link between art, education and dignity of labor. A project that, starting from the heart of prisons, intends to speak to everyone, reminding them that hope remains the first and most necessary form of freedom.
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| Holy See will have ten "Doors of Hope" made by well-known and artists and designers: the project |
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