The lanterns have arrived at Edinburgh University’s Old College Quadrangle and will be there daily from 4pm – 9pm from the 29th January until 7th February. Chinese New Year falls on 31st January 2014.
Around 90 brightly coloured figures up to 2.5m tall have populated the Old College quadrangle. The lantern army includes women and children as well as men with horses. The exhibition has been coordinated by the University of Edinburgh in partnership with Event International, with thanks to Chaoyang Cultural Centre, Beijing.
The Lanterns of Terracotta Warriors exhibition was commissioned in 2008 for the Beijing Olympic Games. The lanterns are inspired by the famous ‘terracotta army’ discovered when the tomb of the 3rd Century BC Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang was found in Xi’an province in 1974. This army, housed in an underground vault of 12,000sq.m, comprised 8,000 warriors arranged in battle formation, ready to defend the emperor’s immortal soul.The ‘Lanterns of Terracotta Army’ has already been presented in Beijing, Shanghai and other major Chinese cities and was exhibited with great success as part of the Stockton International Festival (SIRF) to commemorate the festival twinning of Beijing Chaoyang Spring Carnival on the occasion of SIRF’s 25th anniversary and most recently as part of Birmingham’s Illuminate Festival!! Event International are carrying out Tour Management in the UK and Europe for the exhibition.
The artist of the lantern exhibition chose to humanise the terracotta army, in keeping with the traditions of Chinese lantern design. These brightly coloured, greater than life size figures are accurate representations of the terracotta soldiers, but this ‘army’ includes women and children arranged in family groups.
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