Exhibition Bündner Kunstmuseum shows young HR Giger before the Alien creation

From Saturday, the Graubünden Museum of Art will be showing young works by Alien creator HR Giger. Photographs from his youth in Chur are also on display until November 24. The exhibition is part of the Giger Year, which honors the Chur native on the tenth anniversary of his death.

As the art museum explained at the opening of the exhibition, numerous photographic documents from Giger's youth in the cantonal capital have surfaced in his estate. They were published in a book for the first time on the tenth anniversary of his death and are now being presented at the Kunstmuseum. The personal photos are complemented by works and objects from the youthful years of the world-famous Chur artist.

The exhibition tells many stories that show a surprising view of an artist's youth, explained the museum's artistic director, Stephan Kunz, to the Keystone-SDA news agency.

"Too one-sided a picture"

The public had previously had too one-sided an image of the later Alien creator. "HR Giger lived in very different worlds, knew the fine game as well as the fierce rock 'n' roll and jazz," says Kunz.

On the one hand, the photographs provide an insight into Giger's middle-class, family environment. "On the other hand, they show expressive images from the early years in Chur, when HR Giger gave free rein to his creativity and set up his legendary 'Black Room' in his parents' house," explained the Artistic Director. The exhibition shows developments that made many things possible and "only seem logical in retrospect".