In 1990, on the occasion of his 50th birthday, HR Giger was invited to mount
a major retrospective of his work at the Château de Gruyères.
The exhibition, ‘Alien dans ses meubles’, was a huge success and
was attended by 110,000 visitors.
After many visits to the medieval village of Gruyères, HR Giger fell
in love with this wondrous region. And when he heard from Etienne Chatton
that the fortress structure further below, the Château St. Germain,
was up for sale, the idea to establish his own museum and a Center of Fantastic
Art was born: on September 11, 1997, he acquired the Château. With the
help of the architect Roger Cottier, the former museum director Barbara Gawrysiak
and the invaluable support of the many co-workers, the museum opened (most
of its) doors on June 21, 1998.
On permanent display at the museum is the most extensive collection of artworks
from Giger’s different creative periods. In addition to such seminal
works as ‘The Spell’ and the ‘Passages’ series, the
museum houses, intact, most of Giger’s film designs, including the artwork
of ‘Alien’ and ‘Alien 3’, ‘Dune’, ‘Species’,
‘Poltergeist 2’ and ‘The Mystery of San Gottardo’.