Sylvio Giardina's Performance at the Baths of Diocletian Blends Fashion and Ritual

On July 13, 2023, a site-specific performance titled SI/LENZIO took place at the Museo Nazionale Romano in the Baths of Diocletian complex in Rome. Conceived by fashion designer Sylvio Giardina and curated by Alessio de' Navasques, the work merged fashion and performance through the myth of Persephone (Kore), evoking themes of ritual, memory, and eternal femininity. The central figure was Spanish performer Mina Serrano, who lay sleeping in an enormous evening gown made from archival fabrics—including silk organza, chiffon, georgette, crepe, cady, mikado, duchesse, French lace, and metallic threads—that spread around her like a reflective pool. Giardina, described more as a theatrical director than a fashion designer, previously created a giant loom for his performance /gal-le-rìa/ at Palazzo Farnese in January 2023. The sleeping figure recalled Tilda Swinton's 1995 performance at the Serpentine Gallery in London, repeated at Museo Barracco in 1996 and MoMA in 2013. Curator de' Navasques referenced philosopher Giorgio Agamben's book "La ragazza Indicibile" (The Unspeakable Girl) on Kore as the sacred, indefinite feminine spirit. The performance was strongly supported by Stéphane Verger, director of the Museo Nazionale Romano. Giardina's studio functions as a laboratory where art, cinema, fashion, and science converge, with preparatory studies evoking a Renaissance approach to spectacle.