Last month, we had a meeting with an alien.
Hubby and I traveled to Switzerland to visit the HR Giger museum and bar in Gruyères, and another bar furnished by Giger’s designs in Chur.
Traveling to Chur
H.R. Giger was a surrealist artist, and hubby has been a fan of his for a long time. I became interested in Giger’s work through hubby when we saw an exhibition in Tampere, Finland some years ago. This was my first trip to Switzerland, but hubby had already been to Gruyères before.
Gruyères is a cute, Medieval mountain village which you can explore in my next post. This post is about Giger’s art. Traveling to Gruyères and Chur by train from Zürich, on seperate trips, gave us two great opportunities to indulge in the scenery along the way.
Chur was the appetizer, however, and Gruyères was the main course.
Pictures from visiting the Chur Giger bar
What really impresses me in Giger’s biomechanical art is that it’s very realistic and consistent. He’s created an alternative reality, a nightmarish one, and his ink and paint airbrush method resulted in some very convincing scenes. Machinery meets flesh. He is most known, however, for inspiring and creating the monster in the Alien movies.
Pictures from Gruyères
I don’t have any photos of his airbrush artworks since photographing inside the museum wasn’t allowed. The photos in this post are from outside the museum and from the bar next door, with an interior landscape straight from Giger’s nightmares.
Pictures from the Giger bar in Gruyères
Stepping into the bar, you felt like you’d just stepped into an alien’s stomach or maybe a sci-fi fantasy boneyard. What a place to set your mind loose! Imagine having those chairs at your dining table at home!
28 replies on “Rendez-Vous With an Alien”
😮 This is seriously jaw-dropping. I’ll share it on fb. As for me, Alien was one of the rare things that could scare me to hell and back every time, that’s why I’m NOT entering. 😀 Insane concept and execution! Kudos to hubby.
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Hahah, you summed it up perfectly: insane concept and execution indeed. The ink art was amazing, too, some of it the size of the whole wall (real life size). A museum visit I won’t forget.
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Ps. Thanks for sharing it 🙂
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You’re welcome. But I’ve got only about 120 friends, half of those inactive, half of the rest oblivious. Could probably buy some. 😀
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Hahah!! Please don’t 😉
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Wow, outstanding work of art. I like surrealism art; it’s sure way to stretch one’s imagination. 😊
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I agree! And I definitely felt the creativity there
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[…] This post has been spurred by TheSnowMeltsSomewhere (Else) and her visit to Alien-styled bar and museum in Switzerland. […]
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We were short on time when we visited Gruyeres so only managed to get some photos outside. Nice to see some interior shots.
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Too bad you missed it! Though Gruyères itself was worth the visit, too
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I live just outside of Zürich, and there is a Giger statue at Wehntalerstrasse 399 that we pass quite often – you can see it on Google Street View, if you feed in that address. I haven’t been to Gruyères, though I love their cheese. 🙂 Of course!
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Hey, thanks for the excellent tip! 😉 I google-street-viewed it of course instantly! Gruyères was a nice little destination, we saw people arrive with cars for the Sunday market
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Yikes. Very bizarre furniture. 🙂
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Dinner guests might be surprised 😀
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Okay, so now I know where the nightmarish alien monster comes from. I simply cannot watch that movie. Ever. I have no business going in this museum, as even looking at these photos freaks me out. Thanks so much for sharing, good thing someone can go in without having a panic attack! 😀
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Hahah 😉 Most of it wasn’t really as scary as Alien, maybe disturbing is a better word. Not that that’s any more tempting as a sales pitch! The art was really beautiful, though, the ink paintings so well done they looked like photographs.
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These are spectacular but the do give me the creeps as well. There’s something about the bone structure that makes me shiver
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I agree, though I am more intrugued in a creative way than creeped out
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Amazing photos. Really capturing post, and excellently put together.
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Thank for the compliments 🙂 It was an amazing place to visit
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what a unique exhibition. looks amazing!
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Unique is the right word!!
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[…] post was absolutely intriguing, and the photos were stunning and informative. The post is entitled Bio-Mechanical Art in a Mountain Village. The facts are all about HR Giger who was the creator of the film […]
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Beautiful pictures!
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Thanks you! It was such an interesting place to photograph
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[…] More about this trip and the H.R.Giger bars and museum in this post […]
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Curiouser and curiouser …
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Hahah! Indeed!!!
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