Rendez-Vous With an Alien

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

Train rides were a delight in Switzerland

Chur train station

Walking by, Chur

Mountain stream in 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

The Giger bar in Chur was more casual than the Gruyères one, with Chur locals having lunch

Eerie faces embedded in furniture

Giger bar, Chur

The floor tiles had this print

We wandered around the old town of Chur afterwards

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

Outside the Giger museum in Gruyéres, Switzerland

This way!

Birth Machine Baby, H.R. Giger

Birth Machine by H.R. Giger

Leaving the museum

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

The Gruyères Giger bar from outside – do you dare enter?!

Gruyères Giger bar

Disturbing but interesting view while sipping your drink inside the Giger bar, Gruyères

Rusty female torso by Giger inside the Gruyères bar

Inside the Gruyères Giger bar

Inside Giger bar, 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!

The chairs may have spines but they were actually comfortable to sit in