The Forty Hours

From Normandy to Sicily Visual and Musical Creation

"The Quarantore" is a grand artistic and musical creation that reinterprets the ancient ritual of the Quarantore in a contemporary key, a spectacular liturgy born in Italy in the 16th century and spread throughout Catholic Europe.

The project combines the monumental wax installation by artist Juliette Minchin and the musical performance by the ensemble Correspondances, directed by Sébastien Daucé, one of the most prestigious European groups specializing in the sacred repertoire of the 17th century.

Through wax structures intended to slowly transform over time and a musical program reconstructed from rare historical scores found in Roman libraries, the work restores the spectacular, spiritual, and sensory dimension of the ancient Quarantore.

Through an artistic language that combines sculpture, space, light, and the transformation of matter, the work invites the audience to experience an immersive and contemplative experience in which time becomes the central element of creation.

The installation consists of one or more monumental metal structures covered in wax. Throughout the exhibition, the work is destined to progressively transform under the effect of heat and time: the wax slowly melts, alters the initial shapes, and produces a continuous metamorphosis of the sculpture. The work is thus not conceived as a static object, but as a living and evolving process, in which the fragility of matter becomes a metaphor for the human condition, memory, and the passage of time.

The project relates contemporary artistic gesture to the religious and cultural traditions of the Mediterranean, questioning the relationship between permanence and transformation, between collective memory and individual experience. The slow melting of the wax, accompanied by music, generates an experience of great emotional intensity that invites the visitor to reflect on the ephemeral nature of things and on the capacity of art to make the passage of time visible.

Enclosed within the framework of Millennium 2027, the project creates a symbolic bridge between Normandy and Sicily, proposing a reflection on shared heritage, collective memory, and the dialogue between contemporary creation, ancient music, and European ritual traditions.

Practical information:

For everyone

Free entry

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