Anthony Martin | Alicante (EFE).- An “immersive experience” with seven Xi’an Warriors and one of their horses is the tempting proposal offered from today until January 28, 2024 by the Alicante Archaeological Museum (MARQ) from the first exhibition with original pieces of the famous terracotta sculptures to go abroad from China after the covid-19 health pandemic.
‘The Legacy of the Qin and Han Dynasties, China. The Warriors of Xi’an’ is made up of 124 original pieces or sets from nine Chinese museums where the seven soldiers and the horse stand out, although there are many other valuable works, and it was opened to the public this Tuesday with the assistance of the Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Asian giant, Hu Heping, and the president of the Provincial Council of Alicante, Carlos Mazón, on whose institution the MARQ depends.
With circular showcases (360 degrees) in the middle of the room, the third and last room of the exhibition aims to be an “immersive” experience for the visitor together with the famous terracotta warriors from the mausoleum of the first emperor and unifier of the territory of China. , Qin Shi Huang, found half a century ago in Xi’an and considered by many to be the eighth wonder of the world.
See the warriors a few centimeters away
These modern showcases allow the visitor to walk among the soldiers and see them from a few centimeters away to almost “almost touch” them while listening to music specially designed for this exhibition, with adequate lighting that enhances the figures of a “unique” collection, in the words of the curator. , the Galician professor at the University of Cambridge Marcos Martiñón-Torres.
A general together with archers, charioteers, spearmen, chariot drivers and support soldiers make up this cast of Warriors in which the detail of each headdress is perfectly distinguished depending on their military rank. The room ends with the figures from the Yanling mausoleum, an army also made of terracotta from the Han dynasty that illustrates the continuity of traditions that continue to the present day.
But in addition to the warriors, two other civil terracotta figures stand out: a seated attendant and a kneeling man who some believe could be a fisherman, who are located next to a small broken tile that serves as a tribute to the thousands of artisan workers who made the Warriors because it serves as an epitaph by revealing the identity of one of these “invisibles”, many of whom ended up buried with their emperor.
Before this third main room of the collection, there are two others where, in the first, there is a review of the 500 years before Qin Shi Huang and the immediately subsequent Han dynasty (from 770 to 220 BC) so that the visitor can Delve into noble life and state bureaucracy through ritual bronzes, huge bells that ring differently than European ones, and jade ornaments.
Lethal weapons in a cherry-scented environment
With a select scent of cherry, a tree that arrived in China in that period, lethal weapons are exhibited, such as a general’s saber, coins, units of volume and exotic objects that arrived via the Silk Road, and the reproduction of a standing stone with an inscription from the Warring States period (475-221 BC), to reflect the earliest known sample of Chinese calligraphy that was reformed during the Qin period and has survived to this day.
The second room has as its epicenter the world of the dead with numerous funerary objects that were buried to be used in the afterlife since the first emperor was convinced that he would rule forever.
For this, he prepared an underground palace to live forever protected by the terracotta army, which includes ceramic pieces of fantastic animals, musical instruments (a lithophone) and gold and silver objects.
Presided over by the silhouette of the first Chinese emperor, in the room there is one of the most spectacular elements of the mausoleum: the reproduction of a bronze chariot weighing 1,200 kilograms pulled by four horses and made up of more than 3,000 pieces with different pigments that, surely, he used Qin Shi Huang to be directed to his eternal grave.
The Chinese Minister of Culture welcomes this museographic collaboration
The Chinese Minister of Culture, Hu Heping, has congratulated this museum collaboration to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the “friendly” diplomatic relations between the two countries and has trusted that the Spanish public will enjoy an exhibition that highlights the best of Chinese culture.
He has reported that the province where the terracotta pieces come from, Shaanxi, is one of the references in the collective imagination of China due to its long history, for which he is convinced that the exhibition will help reinforce knowledge of his country in Spain. .
Before the vice president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Aitana Mas, the host mayor, Luis Barcala, and the director of the MARQ, Manuel Olcina, among many others, the president of the Alicante Provincial Council, Carlos Mazón, has assured that during the next ten months this city becomes an international showcase of Chinese culture through “one of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries of humanity”, and has stated that this is how cultural events for 50 years of Spain-China relations begin.
