How ‘Alien’ creature designer’s works are star of 2 Swiss medieval towns that offer an unlikely mix of idyllic backdrops and morbid art
- H R Giger was born in the Swiss city of Chur, where his style of blending human physiques and machines developed, possibly influenced by his surroundings
- Museums, houses and bars here and in Gruyères tell the artist’s story and exhibit unusual works that put him on Alien director Ridley Scott’s radar
Chur, capital of the eastern Swiss canton of Graubünden, is the oldest city in Switzerland, its well-preserved medieval centre a warren of pastel-painted mansions sitting on the right bank of a still-infant Rhine.
Conservative, and nearly 50 per cent Catholic, this charming city was reluctant to recognise its most famous son – the painter, sculptor and designer H R Giger, whose fantastical and often morbidly sexualised work was considered to be charmless and likely to give religious authorities the vapours.
Before Alien, the artist was already known for posters and for album covers such as prog-rock supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Brain Salad Surgery (1973).
Necronomicon, a book of his art published in 1977, garnered a cult following with its airbrushed images of part-organic and part-machine creatures called biomechanoids. Scott decided he wanted one of its creatures in 3D.
And it was the Oscar-winning success of Alien that finally forced Chur to pay attention to Giger.
