The exhibition brings together iconic sculptures, early paintings, and drawings of the legendary Swiss artist and creator of the Alien creature (from the namesake film) HR Giger (1940–2014), alongside a collection of graphic works and photographs of the subversive German Surrealist Hans Bellmer (1902–1975). Bellmer understood the body as an erotic landscape probing the limits of sexuality, identity, and social order. His monstrously erotic Doll (Die Puppe, 1934), a fragmentary and lustful sculpture, was his response to the Nazi ideal, a neoclassical »Aryan« body. Giger, who explicitly stated his inspiration in Bellmer, also understood the body as a battlefield to confront the repressed sides of human nature. In his dark universe, fantasy creatures enact their libertine desires in nightmarish scenarios that challenge, like Bellmer, the aesthetics and morality of his time. This exhibition is a surreal sexual fantasy, a voyage that sheds light on the barely acknowledged historical bond between these two artists.

Curated by Laura López Paniagua
All works by HR Giger were selected by Agnes Gryczkowska