Elisabetta Benassi's 'Camelopardalis' Installed at Rome's Baths of Diocletian

On June 10, 2024, Italian artist Elisabetta Benassi (born 1966, Rome) will unveil her site-specific sculpture 'Camelopardalis (testa di Michelangelo)' at the Baths of Diocletian, one of four venues of the Museo Nazionale Romano. The work crowns the eighth and previously empty pillar in Michelangelo's cloister, built in 1565 as part of the Certosa di Santa Maria degli Angeli. The commission follows a 2023 competition won by Benassi for her project 'L'ottava testa', which responds to the restoration of seven marble animal heads—four from Trajan's Column (a horse, two bulls, a dromedary) and three Renaissance works (a ram, an elephant, a rhinoceros inspired by Albrecht Dürer)—cleaned with natural biocides and essential oils. The scientific committee included Maite Bulgari, Damiana Leoni, Massimo Osanna, Ludovico Pratesi, and Stéphane Verger. Benassi's practice critically examines cultural and political heritage through installation, photography, and video; her current retrospective 'Autoritratto al lavoro' runs at Rome's Macro Museum until August 25, 2024. She previously created 'Empire' (2018) for the Museo Nazionale Romano's Crypta Balbi site, permanently installed since 2022. The initiative was supported by the Associazione Mecenati Roman Heritage.