Charly Bieler Boeken

HR Giger (1940–2014) is one of the outstanding figures in Swiss art and design history, celebrated around the world for his design of the fantastic creatures and eerie environments that terrified moviegoers in Ridley Scott’s 1979 science fiction film Alien . Yet, very little is known about Giger’s childhood and youth in his native town of Chur. A trove of photographs, drawings by the young boy Hansruedi, and early artworks that already reveal the future of HR Giger’s artistic force, recently unearthed in the Giger family’s former holiday home in the Grisons, now offer intimate insights into his early years until the early 1960s. Richly illustrated with more than 230 images from that collection, HR Giger: The Early Years tells, for the first time, the story of those two decades before Giger decided to move to Zurich and train as an architect and designer in 1962. Supplemented by brief texts as well as by statements from his schoolmates, friends, and others, these images form a lively picture of that period: family episodes; the Mickey Mouse adaptations Giger created at the age of ten; his growing love of jazz music, photography, and weapons; the trips around Europe he took together with his friends; and the youth culture of Chur of the 1950s and 1960s that shaped him. The volume will appeal to any fan of the extraordinary art and the fascinating personality of HR Giger.

Historische Fotografien aus Chur, der ältesten Stadt der Schweiz, bilden den Mittelpunkt dieses Buches, das die Entwicklung von 1860 bis 2022 dokumentiert. Charly Bieler betrachtet nicht nur die Altstadt, sondern auch die Veränderungen im Stadtgebiet und erzählt Anekdoten über bemerkenswerte Ereignisse und Orte. Die Nutzung von Gebäuden hat sich drastisch gewandelt, von traditionellen Versammlungsorten zu modernen Einrichtungen. Mit einem Vorwort des Bürgermeisters und einem Beitrag des Stadtpräsidenten bietet das Buch einen faszinierenden Einblick in die Vergangenheit und Gegenwart von Chur.