This time it is not about breaking a Guinness record, as in the case of the Nativity, which in recent Decembers has been installed in the same area of ​​La Explanada; now it is a publicity operation. It is about drawing attention to the exhibition that for almost three months has been attracting more than a thousand people a day to the Archaeological Museum of Alicante (MARQ), a flow of visitors even greater than that produced by the stay of the Mirón discus thrower.
The piece, a warrior that replicates one of Xian’s famous terracotta sculptures, is eleven meters high, including a base of 10,000 kilos of sand intended to keep it standing. It will remain on display until the end of the exhibition it promotes – “The Legacy of the Qin and Han Dynasties, China. The Warriors of Xi’an” – in January 2024, but it will be removed during the San Juan festivities so as not to “compete” with the monument of the Esplanade Bonfire.
The warrior has been built by a team of five people, led by the fallero artist José Manuel GarcÃa Esquiva ‘Pachi’, with an iron structure modeled in expanded polystyrene and covered with an elastomer to withstand inclement weather.
In just a few hours, the work, which recreates one of the authentic terracotta warriors, has become an important tourist attraction to encourage visitors who travel through the city to enjoy the exhibition.
The exhibition, described by National Geographic magazine as the most important exhibition of the year in Spain, opened at the end of March and has already registered close to 55,000 visits, with a significant increase in the public from the United Kingdom and from other countries. nordic. A selection of 120 original pieces from nine Chinese museums and institutions, including nine original statues and a horse from the Xi’an mausoleum, make up the proposal.
The exhibition offers an original and elaborate exhibition design with didactic materials accessible to all audiences, as well as sensory resources that have created an immersive environment through different scents. Room one smells of cherry and rice; room two, with incense, and room three, with lotus flower and tea. Likewise, the musical pieces created expressly by the Alicante composer Luis Ivars accompany and surround the visitor throughout the tour.
The group of the Warriors of Xi’an has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1987 and its stay in the Alicante museum is the result of years of negotiations and work with the Chinese authorities.
