“I am a fanatic for symmetry. It is rooted in me. I think it comes from the Catholic Church – I was raised Catholic,” stated Robert Mapplethorpe.

The new site-specific performance Dennis with Flowers draws inspiration from the most spiritual dimension of Mapplethorpe’s artistic research, revealing the connection between the photographer’s Catholic upbringing and his constant pursuit of an ideal of beauty.

Created through the collaboration between choreographer Gennaro Cimmino and artist Franco Silvestro, the performance takes from one of the works exhibited at MADRE Museum not only its title, but also a flower: the artist’s most beloved flower.

Nude figures strike their bodies with white calla lilies, while the rhythmic cadence of this act of transgression marks the progression of the action. A raised platform, positioned at the centre of the space, symbolically evokes the ascent to heaven and the descent into hell.

On stage, the mortification of the body becomes not a ritual of purification, but a powerful and uncontrollable instinct: a search for the deepest form of spirituality. A spirituality that moves through sin and punishment, in a performance built around opposing forces: good and evil, devil and angel, sex and flower, purity and nudity, guilt and redemption.

At the same time, the work preserves a sense of playfulness and wonder.