L'ARRIVO DELLA NOTTE is the fourth exhibition of the artistic project initiated by Margherita Ratti in 2021 to showcase the potential of South Eastern Sicily, through the original works of Italian and international artists and designers.

L'ARRIVO DELLA NOTTE is a celebration of the concealed life of Sicilian Noble Palaces, the places of night-time pleasures of 18th-century aristocratic society.

In the Palaces there were entrances for coaches, connected with inner courtyards from which guests attended to the grand staircase -with large and coloured glass windows- that introduced them to the piano Nobile.

The exhibition gathers fragments of a night scene on the ground floor of a palace, when guests arrive by coach: two lustres, a large figurative painting and a series of wall sculptures.

The designer Giuseppe Arezzi presents “Barlume”, 2024 his new hanging lamp. The structure is in steel with transparent coloured methacrylate trapezoids, in the continuity of the lanterns which decorated the palace’s entrances and provided light at night. The reverberations of “Barlume” on the ceiling and walls of the gallery evoke the atmosphere of night-time festivities.

A horse is the subject of a large painting occupying the back wall of the exhibition space. Its presence is perceived right from the entrance. The horse is at one with its black background, illuminated by a cutting light. “Il Siciliano”, 2024 in reference to the indigenous Sicilian horse, is a work by young artist Michelangelo Menu, the author of two previous works dedicated to South Eastern Sicily (“Dry Stone Wall” and “Serra/Cappella”, 2023).

On show for the first time, “Grafemi”, 2024 by Beatrice Dettori: formal reinterpretations of wrought iron elements - latches, hooks, handles, ring bites and horse harnesses - the pieces are made of black clay, and compose an enigmatic alphabet of graphemes, in a play of weights and counterweights, at a crossroads between art and design.

The public will discover other projects connected with the territory: the object-souvenir “Carruba”, 2021 by Giuseppe Arezzi and “SI SICILIA”, 2022 by Undo-Redo and the ceramics “Minne”, 2023 by MARə, which outline Margherita Ratti's desire to revisit local archetypes through a contemporary lens and to promote their singularity and uniqueness.