How NGV staged its Terracotta Warriors and Cai Guo-Qiang exhibition

It wasn’t easy to get some of China’s most precious ancient treasures to Melbourne — and staging the Terracotta Warriors exhibition was no mean feat for the NGV either. Here’s why.

It would seem a great challenge to recreate the vast space in China’s Shaanxi province that houses the mighty Terracotta Warriors.

So NGV exhibition designer Ingrid Rhule decided to create a whole new space instead and the experience may be even more powerful.

The Terracotta Warriors are one of the main drawcards in NGV’s latest blockbuster exhibition, which opened in Melbourne this week.

Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality & Cai Guo-Qiang: The Transient Landscape brings together ancient and contemporary Chinese art.

“The whole design of the exhibition attempts to capture the spirit of craftsmanship in the individual warriors and the contemporary artist’s work,” Rhule says.

With only eight of the estimated 6000 to 8000 Terracotta Warriors that are thought to be in existence being shown, Rhule has housed each one in a glass cabinet with reflective mirrors. It is both a playful device while also suggesting the sense of vastness when viewing them in Shaanxi.

It also speaks to the spiritual infinity that the warriors represent, being commissioned by the Qin Emperor to guard his journey through the after life.

“When we were designing the exhibition, we started to look at the antiquities and warriors but also at Cai Guo-Qiang (the contemporary artist whose work is presented alongside the warriors) because his work references China’s cultural history,” she says.

“But he has a very poetic take on it. He starts to look at the after life and we can start to have a cyclic experience and all sorts of connections can be made.”

Exhibition design manager Ingrid Rhule says the NGV exhibition aims to capture the spirit of craftsmanship in the Warriors. Picture supplied.

The sense of play while observing the warriors is important as viewers can see the warriors in infinity while also looking at themselves in the mirrors.

But the decision to house each warrior in its own case was essentially a matter of respect.

“We thought they deserved it,” she says.

“When you stop and observe each warrior, you see the incredibly different craftsmanship and the different features that each warrior has.

“When you experience them en masse in China you don’t see the individual ones. This exhibition celebrates the craftsmanship.

“We’re very aware that many people in our audience are well travelled so they may have already seen the warriors in China and we wanted to provide a new way of looking at them so that it’s a new experience that opens their eyes and gives them a fresh take on it.

“No one will have seen it like this before.”

An NGV exhibit team member installing one of the Terracotta Warriors at the NGV. Picture: Eugene Hyland.

Rhule, an interior designer, says this is a rare chance to unite antiquities with contemporary art, establishing a dialogue between the two.

“We had this opportunity to collaborate with this world renowned contemporary artist in Cai and think about the connections with China’s cultural history,” she says.

“It’s really about setting up a poetic architectural response and we do a lot of planning but you never really know how it will go until the exhibition is up and running.

The terracotta army from the Qin dynasty were discovered by accident in the 1970s. Picture supplied.

“You just hope it lives up to all your expectations but, in this instance, it has exceeded them.

“It’s really about us using rich and interesting experiences for our visitors. We think about ways in which we can amplify those encounters.

“We use architecture and space to tell a story and then allow the narrative to unfold.”

Melbourne Winter Masterpieces: Terracotta Warriors and Cai Guo-Qiang. NGV. Until October 13.