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Anorak News | Clay Soldiers

Clay Soldiers

by | 19th, September 2006

HARD as it tries, the crowd at Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium are no match for the real terracotta army*. Sure, they stand still and mute, but they lack age and mystery.

As such the United faithful fail to capture the imagination of one Pablo Wendel, a German art student said to be “obsessed” with the terracotta army.

Pablo not only wanted to see the army that guarded the tomb of Qin Shihuang, the first Emperor of a United China, but he wanted to experience what it is like to be a clay soldier.

So Pablo made his way to the site where an estimated 8,000 warriors stand guard. And dressed in the panoply of an ancient and muddy Chinese soldier, he mingled with the artifacts.

But guards spotted a movement in the ranks. And resisting the urge to panic and run screaming into the hills, they went to investigate.

As one officer says: “I got into the area where he was supposed to be, looked around and didn’t see him – he looked too much like a terracotta warrior.”

But Pablo was soon spotted. And was duly carried out, still unblinking and stiff.
“It’s worth being thrown out just to be a warrior for a moment,” says Pablo in the Times.

And indeed it must be. And buoyed by that success, we eagerly await Pablo’s next outing, perhaps on the spare plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square, or among the die-hards at Old Trafford…

*Special thanks to Tarracotta Army Brigadier Mick Hume



Posted: 19th, September 2006 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink